Keys
by Ka.Ra.Ea
Summary: Willow and Dawn find a book from another dimension and decide to send it back, not realising that you should probably keep the Key away from inter-dimensional spells... Good job it's a dimension they happen to know a little about. Will probably contain some Dean/Cas but not sure about other pairings yet. Open to suggestions.
1. Chapter 1

****So far this is unbetaed as I have very little idea of how to get a beta, so forgive any mistakes. If anyone has any tips they'd be appreciated.

It's set post series for Buffy, and sometime in season 4 in Supernatural. I have no idea how the timelines compare but if it doesn't match up at all then blame it on magic... Same for any other inconsistencies... :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural, Buffy the Vampire slayer or their respective characters.

* * *

**Keys**

****Chapter One

Willow reached for the spell book open by her side. Giles had called yesterday and she still hadn't found the incantation he wanted; something she was not looking forward to telling him, especially seeing as he had spent three days looking for the book she had 'borrowed' before realising where it was.

Her mouth silently recited the words on the page, something she often did when trying to read this particular wiccan dialect. Something seemed off about it; something she couldn't quite place. She went over it again, reading it aloud.

"Hmm." She sat back with a puzzled expression on her face and reached for the phone.

"Hello?" Giles' voice asked after a few rings.

"It's me. I haven't found it yet, but I was wondering if you could tell me something?" She didn't bother saying who 'me' was, she was sure he'd get it.

"Oh, um, alright. What did you want to know?"

Willow could hear the slight irritation underlying his unflappable English gent accent. "I came across this passage about vampires and it doesn't make any sense. It's written in an old Gaelic dialect and it's talking about their origin and soft points, yada yada. Funny thing is, it says something about 'dead man's blood'. It's kinda weird don't you think? I mean it says something about it being poisonous or something, but last time I checked it just makes 'em get a tummy ache if they eat it, right?"

"What does it say exactly?" The irritation had disappeared and she could tell she'd piqued his interest. She recited the passage to him.

"So? Weird, right?"

"Yes, it is intriguing." He muttered distractedly. "Does it say anything else?"

"Not about the icky blood, no, but it does say something about them being sensitive to sunlight. Bit of an understatement." She reread the page as Giles muttered indistinctly on the other end of the line.

After a while he seemed to come to a conclusion. "Is that one of the books we used when we were looking for information on Glory?"

"I don't know, I think so. It's the one I borrowed from you." Willow glanced down at it uncertainly.

"Are you sure? The one I asked you to look at was an old Gaelic text on energy lines. I don't recall there being anything on vampires."

"Oh!" She cringed a little at the mistake. "This is the one with the big bronze sygil thingy on the front. It's one of the more general ones. I was using it to look up shape-shifter stuff, but the stuff it said was totally wrong."

"Ah, yes. I think I know the one you mean. It's a collection of-" He paused. "So who has my book?"

"You sure you don't have it?" Willow asked timidly.

"I'm sure." He said, a no-nonsense tone in his voice.

She gave in. "Dawn might still have it."

"Still? When did she get it, and how did she get her hands on it in the first place?" His tone was accusatory; he knew exactly how Dawn had got a hold of it.

"She said it was for her school work!" Willow defended herself.

"Willow," He started, exasperated.

"Look, she has it. She hasn't done anything stupid yet. And maybe she won't. I won't lend her any more books, I promise." Willow placated before he could finish. "Anyway, why is this book so off about stuff?"

"It's one of the books we found with that nest of ghouls after the hell dimensions opened. It must be from one of those alternate dimensions; it probably only applies to that world." Giles explained. "Now if you don't mind, I have a young girl to ring about a book."

They hung up and Willow glanced down again. Something about the words sounded familiar, but she couldn't place it. She glanced up at her book shelves, trying to remember if she'd seen anything similar in them. Instead her gaze fell on a DVD box set. Of course!

She stood quickly enough to make her head spin and grabbed the case, nearly breaking it in her haste to take out a DVD and insert it into her player. When she'd finished watching the part she wanted she stopped it.

"No way!" She breathed. She snatched up her phone again, dialled a number and let it ring.

"Hello?"

"Dawnie, you'll never guess what!"

"You ratted me out to Giles and now I have to sit through another boring lecture on the responsible use of magic?" Dawn said sickly sweet and very annoyed.

"Oh, yeah, sorry about that. But no. It's something really awesome. Come over to my place?" She would have called Buffy or one of her other friends, but she knew Dawn would appreciate this more.

"Okay, when?" Dawn asked slowly, not sure what Willow was talking about.

"Soon. Whenever you can." Willow could barely contain her excitement or stop herself from demanding Dawn come right away.

"You in for the next hour or so?"

"Yeah."

"'Kay, I'll be right over."

Half an hour later Dawn stood looking between the book and the screen. "You sure?"

"Not completely, but I think so, yeah."

Dawn's slight frown was gone in an instant. "Awesome!" She jumped up and down a little on the spot. "You mean there's actually a dimension where this is real?" Her huge excited grin was more than even Willow had expected.

"Yeah, I mean maybe." Willow tried not to get carried away but her matching smile of excitement proved that she was struggling. "It might just be that the writers found a book like this one and used some of it in the show."

"But where would they have found it?" Dawn's eyes were wide, denying all attempts at telling her that what she thought was unlikely.

Willow shrugged.

"So, what are you gonna do with it?"

Willow didn't know what she meant. "Huh?"

Dawn rolled her eyes impatiently. "It's no use to us! Well, unless more of those things got through, but I think if they did they probably went down with Sunnydale."

Willow frowned a little as she tried to follow the ramblings of her hyperactive friend.

"And sending objects across is easy, right? Just living things that need a big ol' gateway opened up for 'em." Dawn continued.

"Oh! You mean you wanna send it back?" Willow's eyes lit up in understanding.

"Yep. We can do that, right?"

"I... I dunno. Never really tried it before." Willow said a little uncertainly, but with enough curiosity to get Dawn's hope up.

"Great! Do you have the spell around here somewhere?" She was already striding to the bookshelves, running her fingers along the spines as she read them.

"Dawnie..." Willow said warningly.

"Got it!" Dawn pulled a book from the shelves and started leafing through it.

"Dawn..."

The brunette looked up. "What?" She took in Willow's disapproving expression. "Oh, come on! It's harmless! And besides, someone on the other side might really need it!"

Willow still looked unsure but she said nothing.

"Please? It's only a little spell and if I don't do this one I might do one at home, alone, unsupervised..." Dawn manipulated.

Willow sagged in defeat, although she had to admit that the thought of having this small magical connection to the world beyond the screen was enticing. "Fine, but if anything looks like it's going to go wrong we stop the spell and you leave while I fix it." Willow said, taking the book from Dawn's hands. "Man, Buffy is gonna kill me for this!"

"I won't tell her if you won't." Dawn replied in a sing-song voice.

Fifteen minutes later they were sat in a circle of salt with their hands joined, chanting a strange Latin approximation of 'a place for everything, and to everything its place' that should fix them on the place the book came from, ready to send it back.

Willow opened one eye, "Ready?" She asked.

Dawn nodded.

"Okay then." Willow released one of Dawn's hands to grip a handful of dried, crumbled Comfrey while Dawn reached for the Chicory root powder.

They simultaneously sprinkled the herbs over and around the book, chanting the words of the transportation spell. Willow hoped the Cannabis incense didn't clog up Dawn's clothes; it had none of the effects of the drug, but Buffy would instantly know what they'd been doing. Willow only ever used that one during spells. The quartz crystals began to glow.

Dawn tightened her grip on Willow's hand in anticipation.

They said the final words, drawing a letterbox in the air with their fingers, before gently touching all four corners of the book, raising it telekinetically to the glowing outline they'd drawn and 'posting' it through.

The moment their fingers touched the edges of the outline, the room brightened with an intense white light and they both closed their eyes against it.

* * *

Dean and Sam shielded their eyes as a blinding white light filled the room in front of them, each reaching for their weapons in a long memorised reaction to anything strange.

A thud sounded as a book dropped to the floor and the white light vanished, leaving crackles of purple and pink lightening sparking around the room. They took in the sight of the two women before them, each looking around in shock.

"Well, would you look at that." Dean said surprised, before raising his gun to shoot.

* * *

Very unsure of how this is going, so please let me know what you think :)


	2. Chapter 2

Sorry about the long wait! Also I hope the chapter doesn't end too abruptly, but I kinda wanted to get this up before you ran away and forgot about me and my little story. Hopefully the next one will be better. :)

Disclaimer: Still not mine.

* * *

"Don't shoot! Please!" The redhead's voice rang out before Dean could take the shot, and he couldn't help the sudden hesitation he felt. In all honesty the main reason he hated witches so much wasn't just the nasty murder stuff; pretty much everything they faced was as bad or worse on that front. It was the fact that they were human. The fact that they chose it; the fact that every horrible, evil, twisted thing they did was undeniably human. And also that even in spite of what they did, he still felt a twinge of guilt at killing people. Not that that stopped him.

The brunette was looking at them wide eyed, avoiding eye contact and subtly shifting away from them, while the redhead had her hands held up in front of her, looking directly at them.

"Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?" Dean demanded. Thinking about it, he probably ought to find out why there were witches in Bobby's living room before he killed them.

"Returning a book." She held out the volume in front of her and Dean leaned in to look a little closer, not making a move to take it. "The spell was to send it back, we weren't meant to come with it." She looked at her companion strangely, as if figuring something out.

"Right, because that's believable." Dean said sarcastically. "A couple of witches just decided to return a book to a hunter's house. I'm sure you were just worried about getting a library fine."

"Okay, for starters, I'm the witch and she's just a friend; actually the baby sister of a friend who's totally gonna flip and probably go on a bloody rampage when she finds out I let her do a spell like this. And I'm just gonna add here, before you get all shooty and killy on us, that I'm a good witch; a nice witch. No warts or cackling." The redhead rambled, shaking her head to emphasize the last sentence.

Dean was only half listening. He was sure he'd seen this girl before somewhere.

"Dean?" Sam looked to his older brother in askance.

He shook himself out of his daze and his eyes widened. "Dude, she's the chick out of American Pie!"

Sam looked puzzleed for a moment and looked between his brother and the redhead before realising what Dean meant. "Woah, Michelle's a witch?"

She shrugged and nodded seemingly to herself. "Better than an evil vampire queen-type."

The boys frowned in puzzlement and the brunette giggled nervously.

"Sammy, how 'bout you get Glenda and Dorothy here down to the panic room and I'll go call Bobby." He didn't wait for an answer as pulled out a battered mobile phone.

Sam gestured to the girls to stand and led them at gunpoint to the basement.

Once alone in the panic room Willow looked sympathetically at Dawn. "How you holding up, kiddo?"

Dawn pulled a face. "Kiddo? Really?"

Willow stifled a giggle at Dawn's indignant expression. "Sorry."

"And I'm okay. Guess the spell didn't go exactly to plan, huh?" She sat down on the floor and rested her head back against the wall.

"Must have something to do with you being... Well, you know." The witch gestured uncomfortably.

"It's okay, you can say it. It's to do with me being the Key, isn't it?" Dawn looked up at her friend, a little irritated by the avoidance, but more guilty. She should have thought; it's fairly obvious that an inter-dimensional key shouldn't be casting spells to send things between dimensions. "Shame Glory didn't know it was that easy."

Willow gave a half smile in response.

"So, do you think if we do the spell again we can get home?" Dawn's tone was neutral. Even she knew it was a long shot.

Willow shook her head warily. "I don't know, Dawnie. It was a fluke to begin with. I'm not sure we should even try to-"

"What's the worst that could happen? I mean, we're already stuck in a parallel universe where all witches are evil and there are two guys outside the door that I'm pretty sure want to kill you 'cause they think you are too." Dawn pointed out.

"We could end up in a hell dimension, or somewhere without oxygen, or something like that." Willow tried to reason. She didn't want to stay here any more than Dawn did, but she didn't see much of a choice given the risk. They'd find a way, but repeating the same freak accident wasn't going to be it.

"Fine." Dawn huffed. "Good luck with Dean; he doesn't seem too keen on witches in the show."

Willow just pulled the face of an adult looking at a petulant child before walking over to sit next to her. "It'll be fine, we'll just have to show them that we're not from here. They've dealt the weird stuff too, they'll understand."

Dawn shot her a sceptical look.

"Okay, so maybe it's easier said than done. But still, we'll get by. We always do." She bumped her young friend's shoulder, receiving a small smile for her efforts.

Silence filled the room for a few minutes before Dawn broke it.

"Do you really think we should tell them?" She asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Should we really tell them who we are, where we come from? They won't believe us anyway and who knows if they'll ever let us out." Dawn clarified.

Willow frowned. "So what are you suggesting?"

Dawn shrugged. "That maybe you're an overambitious new-age wiccan who accidentally stumbled on a real spell, and I'm a naïve friend who was there when you decided to try it out?"

Willow looked surprised at her young friend; she hadn't thought to play dumb, but it made sense. The boys would probably still be suspicious but they'd at least have a chance to get out and find a way home. "That's actually not a bad idea."

Dawn beamed.

Bobbie didn't take long getting home after hearing that his house had been invaded by witches, and within an hour, all three men were gathered around the spot where said witches had appeared while Bobby examined the book the girls had claimed to be returning.

"Ain't never heard of a teleportation spell before. 'Least not one that works at any rate." Bobby said, more than a little impressed at the feat.

"Yeah, well, it happened. What should we do with them?" Dean deferred to the older man. Even with his blunt instrument days firmly behind him, old habits died hard.

"Well, we could ask 'em what in the hell they were doin' with one of my books in the first place? I haven't seen it in years!" Bobby was making his way downstairs as soon as he'd finished speaking. He would never let on to the boys, but the thought of witches teleporting at will into his house was worrying to say the least, and he'd like to clear up the issue as soon as possible.

They found their captives sat on the floor thumb wrestling; hardly a threatening sight, but they all knew better than to be taken in that easily.

"Would you ladies mind explaining to me what you're doin' in my house?" Bobby asked without introduction.

"We... We were just sending back your book. But something went wrong. I don't know if I read the words wrong or something." Willow tried for confusion, although she was pretty sure she knew why it had happened the way it did.

"And just how did you get your hands on my book?" Bobby showed no outward signs of either belief or disbelief.

"I found it?" Willow didn't have to act nervous, the old man had an air about him that instantly made you feel like a misbehaving child.

"Where?" His arms were folded across his chest.

Willow decided a half truth would do. "Well, I personally didn't find it. My friend did and it's really more my kind of thing so I took it to have a look and..." She trailed off under the sceptical stare she fell under.

Silence fell for a few moments before Bobby spoke again. "How long have you been..." It was his turn to trail off.

Willow jumped in before he could finish the sentence. "I've been a practising wiccan since I was sixteen, and I was a member of the Daughters of Gaea at College. We did blessings and stuff all the time, but this... This is..."

The three men relaxed a little at this; since when did real witches call themselves 'wiccans' or 'Daughters of Gaea'? Besides, blessings weren't exactly the same as spells, they were more a wishy washy prayer to pagan gods with some incense, spring water and a smattering of 'blessed be'. And not a sacrifice in sight.

"How about your friend?" Bobby nodded towards Dawn.

"Oh, I've..." Dawn started.

"She's not really a part of it. Her sister's a friend of mine and she just wanted to join on on a circle..." Willow wondered if she'd overdone it with the 'circle', but none of the men looked phased, and if anything the look of wariness in their eyes only dissipated further.

"I got hooked on it all when I went to the bake sale." Dawn added helpfully.

"Bake sale?" Dean asked incredulously.

"Let me get this straight, you guys aren't real witches?" Sam clarified.

Willow did her best to look offended. "What did you expect witches to do? Ride around on our broomsticks?"

The Winchesters exchanged a glance while Bobby kept his gaze firmly on the two girls.

"Look, all we did was bring your book back. I don't think that's grounds for kidnapping!" Willow started to argue her case.

"You trespassed on my property; I'm legally allowed to hold you until the police get here." Bobby replied flatly.

"And when will they get here?" Willow challenged. In the silence that followed, she decided to continue. "People will be looking for us, you know."

"Will they now? And just where will they be looking?" Bobby pointed out. Even if you took out the fact that it was a whole other dimension, there was still the fact that having teleported, there would be no trail to follow, no clue as to where they went.

Here, Dawn showed her truly exceptional acting skills as she began to cry. She hunched in on herself, and although knowing who her captors were and how powerful her companion was meant that she had no real fear for her life, she pulled all the similar situations she'd been in to mind (of which there had been far too many for comfort), and sat snivelling as all the eyes in the room turned towards her. "Please, I just want to go home." She begged in a small voice.

Bobby's eyes softened, though he made no move to let them out. "First thing's first; boys, get the holy water." He pulled out a silver blade from his belt as two separate flasks of holy water were offered over his shoulders.

Dawn's eyes widened. She'd forgotten their little habit of cutting people. She hated being cut. Still, not like she hadn't had worse.

Both girls sipped holy water and reluctantly held out their arms when ordered to do so. Satisfied to some extent, the men drew back to consider their next course of action.

Willow watched on with a still sobbing Dawn in her arms as they nearly whispered back and forth. She could see Sam getting exasperated and could only hope he was the same in life as he was in the show, and was arguing their case. Dean was whispering fiercely to his brother, and Bobby was listening, interjecting every now and then, but mostly watching the girls thoughtfully.

"How'd you find the spell?" Bobby's voice broke through Willow's inward ramblings.

"Umm..." Willow thought desperately on what to tell him.

"'Cause the way I see it, you don't just stumble on a spell like that, and it sure as hell ain't in my book. So where'd you get it?" Bobby had the attention of everyone in the room now, but no one spoke. Willow looked away a little guiltily. "That's what I thought."

So much for playing dumb. Willow berated herself for not being able to come up with a plausible way for her to have come across the spell. "I-" Willow cut herself off, staring a little in shock at a space just behind Dean's shoulder.

Dean looked at her slightly slack jawed face and turned, jumping away a little in surprise at the proximity of the angel he found standing behind him. "Dude! Little warning next time?"

Castiel looked at him for a moment before turning back to stare at the strangers. "My apologies, Dean, I did not mean to startle you." He was squinting a little as his eyes focused on Dawn.

"There something we can help you with?" Dean asked a little sarcastically when it became apparent that the angel wasn't going to speak.

Again, his eyes turned back to Dean, this time with a contemplative look which said he was working out how to explain in terms Dean's lowly human mind would understand. "There was a... disturbance in the fabric of this universe..." He paused, making sure he was explaining properly. "Something from... Somewhere else, came through."

Dean took a moment to unravel what Castiel had just said. "Something like what? And from where?"

"Something like that," Castiel pointed at Dawn, "And I don't know from where. Probably a parallel world."

"That? That's a girl, Cas. Hardly an extra terrestrial." Dean pulled a face.

"That isn't a girl."

"Really?" Dean looked back at Dawn, looking her up and down as if scanning for some evidence to support Cas's assertion.

"But you are right, she is from Earth. Just not this one."

"Because that makes sense." Dean puzzled over Cas's use of 'she' when he had only just said she wasn't a 'she' at all, but let it go in favour of 'not this one'. You kind of had to prioritize what you were going to be confused about when talking to angels. Or maybe it was just Cas.

"So, what is she?" Sam piped up.

"I can't quite tell..." Cas stopped speaking to continue his in depth examination of Dawn.

"What about the other one?" Bobby had kept watchful eyes on the girls after a quick glance at Cas when he first entered and didn't look away as he said this, just nodding slightly towards Willow.

"A witch." Castiel's eyes flickered briefly in the red-head's direction before he frowned a little and looked again properly. "An extremely powerful one." He stepped forwards. "Why are you still here?"

Willow looked confused. "I... Is there any reason I shouldn't be?"

"You could have left a long time ago. Why would you stay here?"

She had to admit, he had a point. But she hadn't really thought about using her magic to get them out; it was using magic that got them here in the first place. A part of her actually wondered if it would work here anyway.

"What do you mean she could have left a long time ago? We've got them under lock down." Dean's eyes were wide and he sounded a little angry, as if his abilities had been questioned.

Castiel didn't reply, trusting what he'd said to explain itself.

Willow decided to answer Castiel honestly. He was an angel after all, maybe he could help them get back. "We didn't mean to come here, it was accident, and we don't know if we can get back."

"You opened a door between dimensions by accident?" Bobby looked a little awed, though he'd never admit it.

"My friend, she's... Well, she's kinda..." Willow stumbled over saying it.

"They key." Dawn piped up. She was sick of it being danced around, if they were going to help, the boys needed to know and dragging it out wouldn't help anything.

"Key?" Several voices chorused.

"Inter-dimensional portal opener." She rolled her eyes a little and gave a small shrug like it didn't matter, when really it'd hurt more than she'd expected when Castiel had said she wasn't a girl and saying this felt like agreeing with him. Not being quite human never got all that much easier. Nobody seemed to know quite what to say about that so she continued. "I know, it's kinda dumb to play with magic like that when you're... Well, me. But we thought it needed a certain ritual to do anything. That at least I'd need to bleed all over the spell first."

Four pairs of eyes shot down to her still bleeding arm.

She glanced down herself. "Oh. That. It's fine, it won't do anything. I've been cut before and all I did was get everything messy." And because she felt it needed to be said, "I am human, by the way. I have memories, a sister, friends. I even have a stupid high school diploma. I... Just didn't start out that way."

Willow gave her a small sympathy smile and looked back up at Cas. "So, can you help us? To get back, I mean."

"Why can't you just do the spell over again?" Dean asked before the angel could answer.

"'Cause it wasn't meant to do this in the first place. If we tried it again without knowing what happened it could jump us somewhere else. Somewhere worse." Willow replied.

The look on Dean's face that suggested there wasn't a worse place out there for them to jump to.


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry for the long gap in updates and replies to reviews, internet problems. Sorted now though :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, Supernatural or their respective characters.

* * *

The short answer to whether angel whammy could get them home was no.

No also happened to be the answer to a lot of other questions. Questions like 'does Bobby know anything/anyone that could help', 'could the girls try to find a coven that might know something', 'were they allowed out of the panic room without supervision' and Dean's personal favourite, 'could they help with any hunts the boys were on'. As if he was going to let two witches - Sorry, _one_ witch and a little helper - he'd just met, and had no evidence to prove weren't as evil as any other witch he'd met, on a hunt with him and his (not so) little brother.

However, the captives had managed to negotiate (and Dean had the nagging feeling that this wasn't exactly the first time either of them had been held against her will) to the point of supervised access to the rest of the house and a few of Bobby's less dangerous books. A liberty they were currently indulging in in Bobby's living room with boxes of pizza and bottles of various fizzy drinks.

Dean watched from the doorway as Bobby and Sam set to work on their own kind of research in the corner of the room; looking serious and tired, with intermittent rubbing of chins and foreheads and sighs of frustration or boredom. It was quite a different picture from that of the girls, who seemed to be _enjoying_ their research.

Willow was enthusing over the history content of a book she was pretty much flipping through (how anyone managed to do thorough research by _flipping_ Dean had no idea) while Dawn balanced a slice of pizza precariously over a very old and very valuable illustrated text that she seemed to be looking at for the pictures.

The amazing and somewhat annoying thing was that they seemed to be making steady progress; as steady as Sam and Bobby with their serious and detailed perusals, and Dean really had to learn how to do that.

He meandered over, trying for nonchalance as he peered over their shoulders. "Anything?" He asked the room in general.

"Nothin' relevant." Bobby scratched his beard and looked at Sam.

"Uh, a vague account of a woman who claimed to be from another world in the late fourteen-hundreds. Said she 'opened a door' that she used both ways. Could just be another demon though." Sam rubbed a hand over his face.

They all turned to look at the girls.

"There's this philosopher that thought that heaven and hell were different dimensions and that everyone had an angel and a demon counterpart." Willow answered. "Really interesting but there's no way of telling if he meant real heaven and hell or that there was a dimension where everyone had a good or bad counterpart. Says he used various herbs to catch glimpses of these alternate realities, but more 'n likely he just got high." She shrugged a little and leaned over to look at Dawn's book. "Got anything Dawnie?"

"Faeries." Dawn smiled in amusement as her own words. "They're meant to come from alternate dimensions that exist along-side this one and they pop in and out to abduct people then chuck 'em back through years later. Might be nothin' but I figured if it meant alternate reality like our alternate reality they must have a way of knowing which world to send them back to."

"Faeries?" Dean said cynically. "Come on, there's no such thing."

"Oh, because angels and witches are perfectly normal, but faeries are wack-a-doodle." Willow retorted with an eye roll.

Sam smiled a little at that and came over to look, the movement of crossing his gargantuan legs beneath him resembling a large, clumsy spider. "Can I have a look?" He held out his hands for the book.

"Sure." Dawn passed it over and reached for more pizza. "Want me to look over that fourteen-hundreds thing?"

Sam nodded absently and Dawn stood up to check the web page open on Sam's laptop.

Dean looked at Willow who was taking a lemonade break. "So, ah, where did you learn to research like that?"

She looked up. "Like what?"

"Like it's a big pizza party and not..." He paused and gestured a moment, not sure how to continue, "Not, you know, scary life or death stuff."

Willow frowned and shrugged. "I dunno, we've kinda always done it this way. Pizza and sugary, caffeinated drinks just seem to go hand in hand with hours of reading and web searches."

Dean thought of endless cups of coffee and cold burgers and fries. "Yeah, that bit i get, but how do you not get bored, how do you have fun with it?"

"I guess I just find it interesting. And it does get boring after a while; but then you have a break and complain about how boring it is, someone cracks a joke, and by the time you get back to it it isn't so bad anymore. I guess it kinda is a big pizza party." Willow grinned in memory of some of the better group reseaching sessions and Xander's ridiculous jokes. "There are bad ones here and there, where you don't have a lot of time, and nobody can find anything, but it always works out in the end."

"I bet you really enjoyed high school, didn't you?" Dean asked accusingly.

Willow laughed. "Guilty. I was a real nerd. Even substituted our teacher in computer science for a while; loved every second. Wasn't too keen on some of the people though... Blood sucking, soul destroying monsters."

"Your school had a vampire problem?" He raised his eyebrows. No wonder the girls knew how to research.

"No... Well, yeah, that too, but I mostly meant the other students." Willow smiled sheepishly. "The vampires you could kill; the students were a little more permanent."

"Amen sister." Dean smirked. He definitely knew what she meant there.

"So how do you guys do the research thing?" Willow asked. She already had an idea from the show, but she wanted to know his opinion on it after his evaluation of the scooby technique.

"Mostly I land it on Sam and watch TV," He grinned, "But sometimes I join in. We just tend to read until we can't keep our eyes open, down some coffee and repeat the process until we pass out."

Willow pulled a face. "Sounds fun."

"Yeah, not so much." He glanced at the others. "Take it you do something like what we do back where you come from?"

"Kinda. Our highschool was a hellmouth." She explained.

He frowned a second, trying to work out if that was another euphemism.

"Like a hell gate? Lots of demons inside trying to get out, and plenty of others on the outside trying to help 'em." She tried.

"Oh, yeah. We had one of those." His face cleared in understanding, though his smile was now strained with bad memories.

Willow gave him a look of sympathy. "Anyway, that meant we used to stick around Sunnydale to do our monster killing. There wasn't exactly a shortage."

"When you say 'our', you mean you and her?" He asked.

"Her sister and our other friends mostly, but she got dragged in when she was about fifteen. Still, only a year younger than the rest of us." Willow observed his face go blank when he heard how young they'd been. "We all chose it though. Well, except for Buffy; but the rest of us did. We saw what she was doing, saving everybody and keeping us as safe as she could, and we wanted to help. Dawn especially. She always wanted to be like her big sister."

"How many of you are there?" He wondered aloud.

"The original gang? Me, Buffy, Xander, Giles, Anya, Tara..." She paused and looked away for a second. "Actually there've been so many people come and go it gets kind of confusing. Always been Buffy, Giles, me and Xander though." She smiled sadly. "Buffy's ex started another branch in L.A a few years ago. Angel investigations. A few of us that left went there. Buffy came from there."

"Angel investigations?" Dean asked incredulously.

"Yep. His name. Well, his name was Angelus, but we kinda save the full name for his Mr. Hyde." Willow wondered why she was explaining any of this. "He had like a demon speciality P.I business."

"Right." Dean tried to fit his head around this for a moment before opening his mouth to ask another question.

"So, your powers. Spells, whatever. You use them to save people? Kill monsters?" Sam spoke before Dean had a chance to. Neither of them had noticed him listening in.

Willow shifted her attention. "Yeah, if I have to. We try and do it the good old fashioned way, but if we need magic..." She trailed off, seeing the point he was trying to make (about his own special kind of magic and using it for good), and wondering how badly they'd messed up the order of things. She hadn't thought to ask until now, but it seemed suddenly important. "When are we? I mean, what's the last big hunt you guys did?" She broke into the meaningful stare Sam was giving his brother.

"We're kind of focused on this one demon right now, she's trying to..." Sam broke off and pulled a face like he knew what he was about to say would sound crazy. "She's trying to let the devil out of hell."

Willow swallowed, and Dawn looked around at her with wide eyes that said she knew what Willow was thinking. They'd watched this happen in the show; they'd seen Sam hopped up on demon blood killing Lilith and letting Lucifer free. They'd essentially travelled back in time, or at least the same rules applied. Them being here was changing the story, which probably wasn't a good thing. They just had to try not to change it too much. She gave a brief panicked thought to what they might have changed already.

"Can I talk to you a minute?" Dawn pushed herself up to stand and tugged at Willow's arm.

"Hey, you know the rules; you wanna talk alone you go down to the panic room where you can't get up to any mischief." Dean pointed between the two of them and Dawn rolled her eyes before changing the direction of her tugs.

Once alone Willow turned to her friend. "We have to get away from them real soon, before we mess everything up." She spoke her concerns aloud.

Dawn chewed her bottom lip for a second. "Do we? I mean, wouldn't it be so much better if the devil didn't get let out?"

"Dawn, no! You know how this goes, you can't mess with history like that!" Willow said, a little surprised Dawn had even thought that.

"Why not? Nothing good comes of letting the devil out." Dawn argued.

"And how would you know? We haven't even seen all of season five." Willow pointed out. "There could be all kinds of reasons for this to happen."

"There are all kinds of reasons for it not to!" Dawn was getting flustered. "Everything they do, everything they go through, all the people that die. We could save them!"

"Dawn I said no!" Willow shivered at the thought of the kind of power they wielded over this world now. She couldn't abuse it; she of all people knew the consequences of using power you shouldn't have.

"Name one good thing that comes of letting the story take it's course." Dawn folded her arms in defiance.

"Lilith dies, Castiel fights for humanity, Sam quits the demon blood." Willow listed.

"All things that can happen without starting the apocalypse." Dawn replied.

"You know we can't do this; you've seen what happens when you mess with the natural order of things." Willow said a little more softly. "You always think you have the best reason in the world, but it never works out that way. I want to help them just as much as you do, but there's always a reason for everything that happens-"

"Exactly!" Dawn cut in. "What if there's a reason for us being here now?"

Willow had to give her credit, she'd have made a great debate team leader. "And what if there isn't? What if we make things worse? Could you live with that?"

Dawn rolled her eyes. "I don't see how we could make things worse by stopping the end of the world."

"There's no guarantee it would even work; the natural order of things has a way of pushing back. What if we couldn't stop it but hurt more people trying, or stopped something good from happening that we've missed?" She couldn't stress enough how bad of an idea it was to try and change this, but she had a bad feeling that Dawn would never see it that way.

The younger girl heard movement from the stairs. She worried for a moment that whoever was there would overhear. Although thinking about it, maybe that woudn't be such a bad thing. She raised her voice a little. "Willow, we save people! We don't just sit around and watch people get hurt! Things have already changed just by us being here, and they'll keep changing until we find a way to get back home, whether we stay around the Winchesters' or not. We can at least try and make sure that they're good changes."

"And how would we know what would be good changes? This isn't our world to change, and these aren't our choices to make. They need to do this themselves or what's the point?" Willow didn't know how else to get Dawn to understand; this wasn't just a story they could rewrite a happy ending into, this was a world with real people who had real feelings and who needed the freedom to make their own future.

"So we won't make their choices for them; we'll just give them all the information first. You think Sam wants to-"

"Dawn! Just stop!" Willow shouted. She sighed guiltily at Dawn's wide eyes. "Just trust me on this; changing things is a bad idea. At least promise me you won't change anything for now, okay? Right now we don't even know how far through everything is."

Dawn nodded mutely.

"All right then. Let's just focus on getting home." Willow turned and led the way back up stairs.

Dawn looked around at the hunters in puzzlement as she re-entered the room. She was sure she'd heard someone at the top of the stairs, but the men didn't look like they'd moved from where they'd left them.

She shrugged and went back to the books.


	4. Chapter 4

It'd been quite a while since I saw the last season of Buffy, meaning I have no memory of how Willow was with her magic by the end of it so please forgive me if I get that a bit wrong. Enjoy :)

Disclaimer: I really wish I did own and make money off Buffy and Supernatural... The amount of chocolate, cheesecake and Redwoods I could buy...

* * *

The next day saw the Winchesters go away on a hunt, leaving the girls alone with Bobby. She didn't say anything, but Willow was a little flattered and touched that they were allowed to stay out of the panic room with Bobby on his own. The books they were allowed to read increased too, though it didn't help all that much.

Dawn hadn't let the idea of warning the boys drop, but she hadn't pushed either; she knew enough by now to know that Willow would have her reasons and that even if she did warn them she would have to do it on her own. In truth she was beginning to wonder how and how much she should warn them about; Willow was right in that respect, how were they to know what to change for the better? And why would they even believe her?

She sighed and flipped another page over, pausing to scan the words for anything useful before flipping again. She didn't bother reading it properly, confident that anything relevant would stand out. It wasn't perfect, but she preferred it to poring over every syllable for hours.

Willow was in the kitchen with Bobby, discussing different theories and any contacts he had that might be able to help.

It was all very slow and questionable progress.

She let her head fall forward onto the book with a dull thump and wondered if they'd ever find their way home. Somehow the idea that they were here for good didn't register properly; if they managed to get here then they had to be able to get back right?

She stood up to peek at where Willow and Bobby were standing with their backs to her, before making her way over to the door. Sometimes being the person no one noticed was handy. Of course, most of the time it was pretty darn annoying, but it had it's moments of usefulness.

They didn't even turn around as the door clicked back into place behind her.

She breathed in the fresh air in relief. Being cooped up indoors for so long had left her feeling itchy and restless, and the cool air on her skin and blowing gently through her hair. She spared another glance at the house, still waiting for them to notice her absence and demand that she came back inside, before walking off into the piles of discarded vehicles and scrap metal.

It felt different walking through it than it looked on screen, the damp smell of moss and mould filling the air with just an undercurrent of rust and oil. It smelt like a metal forest. The sunlight bounced off metal and glass to fill the space around her with bright spots she could barely look at, and apart from the distant sound of flapping fabric, the only noises were birds and far off traffic.

She leaned back against one of the more sturdy looking piles and closed her eyes, enjoying the magnified warmth of the sun through a slightly grimy car window.

A small crunch sounded and her eyes shot open before she was even sure she'd heard it.

"So you're the Winchester boys' new damsel, huh?" An overly confident voice asked before her searching gaze brought her to a tall-ish brunette with a malicious smirk plastered over her face.

Dawn stood up straight, trying not to make her search for easy escape too obvious. She knew who this was, and the knowledge that she was currently a Winchester 'ally' did nothing to reassure her.

The woman, Ruby, laughed. "I could be on you in a second. But I think you know that, don't you?"

Dawn jutted her chin up. "I don't think Sam would be too happy if you attacked someone he was trying to help."

"And what makes you think what makes Sam happy has any influence over me?" Her gaze was penetrating, evaluating.

"You're Ruby, right?" Dawn tried to sound like she was just guessing.

Brown eyes never left Dawn's face as Ruby nodded slowly, still staring at Dawn as though she wanted to cut her open and see what was inside.

"Sam talked about you." She tried not to think about all the people Ruby probably _had_ cut open and moved tentatively in the direction of the house.

"Oh, I highly doubt that." Ruby moved to intercept and folded her arms.

"How else would I know who you were?" Dawn swallowed and shot a glance towards where Bobby and Willow were probably still unaware of her absence.

"That's an interesting question. How _do_ you know who I am?" The smirk was almost gone now, just a slight, dangerous curl at one corner of that pretty pink mouth.

Dawn said nothing.

"And more importantly; just what were you going to warn my little Sammy about?" Ruby stepped forward, making Dawn involuntarily back up against the hard metal behind her. The thought ran through Dawn's mind that it was Ruby at the top of the stairs when she was talking to Willow. "Because, you should know anything that concerns my wonder boy concerns me." She waited for a moment for a reply. "What, don't trust me? If Sam did tell you about me, then he would have told you I'm a good guy!" She took in Dawn's raised eyebrows. "Well, as good as a girl like me can be. I work with the good guys."

"I-I should be getting back, the others will be wondering where I am." Dawn tried, hoping that if Ruby was bothering sweet talking her, then she wasn't going to try anything nasty. Not yet anyway.

"Oh, come on cookie, I'm not finished talking to you. You wouldn't want to be rude." And suddenly Ruby was in Dawn's face, so close she could smell the demon's shampoo blown by the slight breeze. Something sweet and artificial. "Now, what were you going to warn Sam about?"

"L-Lilith? She's... She's..." Dawn's brain, which had supplied an easy answer only two seconds ago, changed it's mind and blanked.

"She's what?" Ruby's face held no trace of humour or amusement now. Dawn knew that look; it was the one the bad guy gave someone just before they broke their arm to get them to talk. Ruby wasn't playing nice anymore.

"She's been getting information from an angel; she knows what seals they're protecting so she can break the others." Dawn suppressed a cringe at the half truth.

"How would you know that?" Ruby narrowed her eyes.

Dawn shrugged. "Long story?" She tried, unable to stop the questioning tone. At Ruby's raised eyebrows she stuttered out an explanation. Something to do with Carver Edlund; beyond that she wasn't really sure what she'd said. At least with his guardian archangel she wasn't putting him in any danger by implicating him... She hoped.

Ruby's smile was back. Dawn had liked it better when she was glaring. "That wasn't so hard, was it? We didn't even have to be mean." She ruffled Dawn's hair. "Now, how about you tell me all about the juicy gossip you've heard from good ol' Chuck?"

"I just told you. And that's all I know." Dawn tried to slide out from in-between Ruby and the car behind her.

Ruby stepped back but still stood in the path to the house. "Somehow I don't believe you." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "I'm thinking I should probably make sure before I let you talk to my boy, or god knows what horrible things you might tell him. But who knows? Maybe you can change some things for the better anyway, huh? We can have a nice long chat somewhere we won't be interrupted, and we'll see if some of what you say can be put to good use."

Dawn's eyes widened and she glanced around quickly, wondering how far she could make it, how loud she could scream before Ruby caught her. Not far, but it was worth a shot. She turned and ran, barely getting ten feet before Ruby's hand on her arm halted her. She took the chance to scream before Ruby's other hand landed on her mouth. She struggled, using all the techniques she'd learned, throwing her weight around, using her free arm and her legs, but Ruby was way stronger, and any damage Dawn caused just ended in the demon laughing and twisting Dawn's arm painfully. She cursed her decision to run so quickly, wishing she'd looked for a nice big chunk of metal to throw before she made her attempted mistake. Or maybe if she'd screamed to start with it would have been heard and the others would be running to her rescue. Too late now for any of that.

Ruby half dragged her through the junk towers and to a car, Dawn was too preoccupied to even notice the colour before she was thrown into the trunk, Ruby's hands batting her legs back down so she could close it. She stopped with a sigh. "Keep your damn legs in the trunk or I'll break 'em."

Dawn did no such thing, but reflexively pulled them back in when Ruby threw down the lid with force. She hadn't stopped screaming, or trying to whenever Ruby's hand obscured the sound, but she had a feeling they were too far from the house to be heard.

She shifted, trying to get comfortable, feeling around for the catch a lot of cars supposedly had now that would open the trunk from the inside. Ruby didn't seem dumb enough to miss that, but if there was one thing Dawn had learned from the countless times she'd been kidnapped, it was that demonic kidnappers often didn't know about the more human safeguards.

She sighed in defeat and reached into her bra for the small emergency cell phone she'd started keeping there once the various demons she'd encountered had started confiscating her normal phone. The network didn't work here (she supposed her number either didn't exist or was already being used by someone else) but the light was handy, and she wasn't past playing some of the games to pass the time if that was all the use she could get from it.

She was really sick of being kidnapped. What, did she have a neon sign on her head proclaiming 'prime kidnapping material' to the demonic world?

The car pulled off, crunching gravel under the wheels, while Dawn started a game of tetris and hoped she'd have better luck escaping on the other end.

Willow nodded. "That sounds like a good place to start; if I could get a look at some of the magic books here I could-"

"Hell no, _I'll_ be looking at the books, you can sift through the stuff I pass on to you." Bobby cut in. "But I'll give 'em a call once the boys get back. See if they'd be willin' to lend me a tome or two."

Willow nodded again, a little annoyed but understanding his caution. They were doing incredibly well just getting the guys help considering. "Anyway, I'm going to make some lunch, you want any?" She'd sent the Winchesters out for some groceries before they left, so there should be something half decent in the cupboards.

"Sure." Bobby agreed absently, turning a page in his contacts book. Well, one of them.

"Dawn, you want anyth..." She trailed off mid word as she looked around. "Dawn?" She stepped into the living room and then through to the bathroom, the door still open and clearly unoccupied. "Dawn!" She yelled through the house, putting on speed as she searched the house, finding each room empty.

Bobby was waiting for her when she finished her pointless and fruitless search. "She's gone?" He questioned, not really expecting a denial.

Willow nodded and headed for the door.

"Where do you think you're going?" He asked casually, hand resting on the shotgun he had on the counter next to him.

"To look for her." She didn't have time for this. Dawn wouldn't have run away, not in a world she knew barely anything about. That meant she was either outside and needed to come in before Willow decided to kick her ass for scaring her like that, or had been taken. Again. With Dawn's track record, the fact that no one in this world knew about her hardly signified. If Castiel had sensed them who knew what else had.

"I'm sure she's just getting some fresh air. Now how about you siddown and let me go look for her?" He wasn't really asking.

Willow suppressed a laugh. "I don't think so." She barely had to think about it before the gun was across the floor and she was out of the door, jamming it shut behind her with a few words. So magic did work here, if anything a little more fluidly. Good to know.

Bobby managed to get out of the house in a minute, but by then Willow was well ahead, already searching the yard. He sighed; shame it had come to this, the girls seemed sweet. Still, they _were _witches after all.

He'd called the boys as he went, letting them know he needed them back ASAP, and set after the girls with a gun.

He raised the gun as Willow appeared around the corner, walking back towards him.

"She's not here." The redhead had a cell phone in her hand, expensive looking with one of those rubber cases over it.

"That hers?" He didn't lower the gun.

"Yeah, she has another but I don't think they work here. Means the GPS probably won't either." She didn't seem to have noticed that he was armed, nor that that he was aiming at her. "Who else knows about us? You must have told someone."

He shook his head slightly. "Nobody, I haven't told a soul. Now how about we go back inside and you go downstairs."

"Well, you must have told someone. Or something could have sensed us like Cas did I guess, but wouldn't they have shown up before now?" She lapsed into silence for a moment. Bobby opened his mouth to say something, but she cut him off. "Ooh, what about Ruby? Sam might have told her about us."

"She may be a demon, but far as I know she's working _with _the boys, and besides, what would she want with Dawn?" He was beginning to wonder if they had guns in Willow's world, her complete obliviousness to his threats was a little unnerving. He probably wouldn't want to know that with the added security of her magic, she viewed him more as a slightly scruffy teddy-bear than a hardened, gun wielding hunter.

She hesitated. "There are things Dawn knows that might... That Ruby might want to take advantage of."

"Like what?" Bobby asked suspiciously.

She avoided his gaze. "I can't tell you. But believe me, you don't want Ruby to find out."

He nodded briefly. "Okay, so what do you want to do about it?"

"We need to talk to Sam." Willow said, after a seconds consideration. She walked back towards the house. "Don't worry, I'll work from the panic room until they get back. You won't have to hold me at gunpoint the whole time."


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Still don't own Buffy or Supernatural. I have a feeling you'd all be able to hear me even across the globe if that ever changed.

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Dawn dozed off around hour five of the drive, figuring she could probably use the extra energy on the other end, though truth be told she was trying her best not to think what would happen when they got wherever they were going.

She was jolted awake as Ruby swerved into a parking space in what was probably a stunt driver worthy maneuver. All Dawn knew for sure was that she was cramped, car sick and her neck killed. She really hoped she was getting out of the trunk soon.

Her prayers seemed about to be answered when the sharp clip of Ruby's heels rounded the car. She stopped however, what must have been no more than three feet away from Dawn. She could hear the dull jangle of keys as the demon played with her key ring.

After a moment Ruby leaned back against the trunk and Dawn heard her speak, a one sided conversation that Dawn presumed was directed into a cell phone. "Hey Sam, long time no see. You need more yet?" A pause. "Well, if you're sure..." A sigh. "Fine, but we both know that there is no way you're beating Lilith without it. The sooner you accept that, the sooner I can stop wasting my time."

Dawn pulled a face and mouthed along with the words, silently mocking _'I'm a skanky dealer hoe and I'm gonna screw you then screw you over, 'cause I'm just skanky like that'_. It didn't have as much bite as Dawn would have liked, but she was too distracted with her physical discomfort and trying to hear the rest of the conversation to do any better. It wasn't like anyone could hear her anyway.

Most of Ruby's side of the conversation was silent after that, with only a word or short sentence here or there that didn't really tell her anything. It wasn't long at all before Dawn heard the snap of a flip-phone closing (and who on earth uses flip-phone's anymore? Must just be to make hanging up more satisfying) and Ruby's footsteps clipped away.

Dawn scowled in frustration and renewed her efforts at finding some way out of the trunk.

It couldn't have been much more than ten minutes before her kidnapper returned, banging on the trunk as if to make sure Dawn was awake. "C'mon cookie, we got a long drive ahead of us and I for one need a break." She opened the trunk, catching Dawn as she attempted to lunge out of the demon's grasp. She marched across the parking lot towards a sprawling motel building, hand vice-like on Dawn's arm. She deftly opened the door to a room one handed and herded her captive inside. It was the work of moments to pull up a chair from the fold-out table at the side of the room and force Dawn down to sit on it; only a few more to dig in her bag for some long cable ties that she used plasti-cuff style to tie her in place. After, she threw herself down on the bed with a sigh, stretching out and making loud groans as her stolen muscles relaxed.

"I didn't know demons needed to sleep." Dawn commented, her voice sulky despite her best efforts to sound grown up. She was nearly twenty-one for God's sake! Why couldn't she get past the sulky fifteen year old who was always a helpless damsel in distress who had to be rescued? A small voice answered that it would be a lot easier if people stopped treating her like one.

"We don't." Ruby said, her voice surprisingly amicable, considering. "But Sam gets uncomfortable if he's the only one sleeping, and seeing as I need him to feel at ease around me, well as much as possible anyway, I took up the habit."

"Aren't you worried I'll escape while you're napping?" Dawn rolled her eyes. Falling asleep with a prisoner you know nothing about tied up a few feet away was a rookie mistake.

"Look, I'm not telling you how to be kidnapped, so don't tell me how to do the kidnapping." Ruby looked at her. "I've done this plenty of times before, how 'bout you?" She said sarcastically.

Dawn thought it best not to answer that.

"Anyway, if you're done I'm going to catch some beauty sleep." Ruby turned her head away and closed her eyes, giving a final stretch as she got comfortable.

Dawn pulled a face as she wriggled her already cramping shoulders. She'd thought her days of sleeping tied to chairs were over.

Dean leaned back against the counter, trying to remember why they'd decided to help a couple of witches anyway (and there was no way he was buying that the younger one didn't practice), they had more than enough on their plate as it was.

Sam was geeking out in the living room with Willow, seemingly oblivious to her obvious line of questioning. Not that he didn't approve; useful as she had proven so far, he had no love or trust of Ruby and couldn't blame Willow for jumping to conclusions. All the same, he was having a hard time understanding why she didn't just _ask_; it wasn't as if Sam was going to try and cover for her.

He didn't deny he was a little worried for the little brunette; she was in a world full of nasties she knew next to nothing about, maybe held captive, maybe out there all on her own, maybe doing just fine for now; all in all she was prime monster bait and whether or not she was out there of her own accord, it wouldn't be long until she found herself in a bad situation. But it wasn't really his problem. He wasn't going to chase after every runaway he came across on the off chance. Shame Sammy was such a soft touch.

Bobby came in from the yard while Dean was still inwardly cursing his brother's overly helpful nature, greeting the refrigerator before he greeted Dean and having a cool bottle of beer pressed to his lips by the time he got a reply. "She given up and asked him yet?" Bobby asked, his grumpy tone doing nothing to hide his amusement.

"Nope." Dean answered needlessly. "You really think it could be Ruby?"

Bobby shrugged non-comittally. "It's possible. Sam may have a crush on her, but she is a demon after all. Who knows what agenda really is."

"Bobby! Sam does not have a crush on a demon! God, I so did not need that image in my head." Dean moved to get his own beer, Bobby's enjoyment of his sparking a craving.

"You mean you haven't noticed that those two are bumping uglies whenever they get the chance?" Bobby asked, a little confused by Dean's ignorance of the situation. "Hell, you said you met 2.0 in his hotel room!"

Dean frowned. "I was trying not to think about that."

"Yeah well, sorry to burst your bubble but you ain't the only one with an otherworldly crush." Bobby said scathingly. How those two kept so close when they kept secrets like that he had no idea. In his opinion it was only a matter of time before they had a major blow out, and God help the world on that day.

"Me? Who the hell do I have a crush on?" Dean snapped.

Bobby just mumbled something under his breath and left the room. He wasn't sticking around for Dean's temper tantrum.

Dean glared at his retreating back and tried to suppress the mental image of Sam and Ruby calling each other 'honey' and doing couple-y stuff. It was a disturbing thought.

Willow looked up as Bobby came over to them, giving a brief smile before going back to probing Sam for information about his demon girlfriend.

Bobby rolled his eyes at her efforts and Sam's oblivious responses. "Sam, did you tell Ruby about the girls?" He jumped straight to the point. Subtlety was lost on his boys, smart as they both were.

Sam frowned. "I may have mentioned them, but not in detail. Why?"

"You don't think the demon network could have gotten wind of their being here?" Bobby could've slapped Sam, he really could. It was one thing talking to Ruby about Lilith, she really did seem to be on board with bringing the bitch down, but it was another telling her about the rest of it. Just 'cause she wasn't going to greet the apocalypse with open arms, didn't mean she was suddenly all hugs and puppies.

"She wouldn't have told anyone." Sam said certainly. "Besides, she wouldn't have much to tell. All I told her was that a couple of girls were staying here while we helped them out."

"You sure?" Bobby asked.

Sam nodded.

"Okay then." Bobby sighed out. "Back to square one."

Willow wasn't convinced, but she kept her opinion to herself for now. There was no way she could explain her mistrust of Ruby without telling them things they really shouldn't know yet. "Maybe not. Even if Ruby isn't behind this, she still has access to the demonic grapevine, right? So why don't you ask her to ask around, listen out for anything that could help." Willow suggested.

Sam looked relieved that no one was challenging his trust in Ruby. "Yeah, sure. I can do that. Give me a sec." He left the room, tugging out his cell phone as he went.

Willow tapped her fingers on the desk and gave Bobby a sheepish look. "I'm sorry for earlier. You know, the magic thing. I was just really worried and-"

Bobby had known the girl less than a week, but already he knew she was headed for a rambling, nervous explanation filled with broken sentences and possibly made up words. "It's fine," he cut her off, "just try not to curse anyone."

She nodded and smiled.

"We'll find her. The boys may be complete idjits, but they're good at what they do." He tried to reassure her when her smile faded in favour of a worried expression.

"I know. And it's not like it's first time she's ever gone missing, I mean she's practically a pro at being kidnapped, and she can look after herself as well as anyone can..." She trailed off, trying to fix her own words in her mind.

"Just how many times she been kidnapped?" Bobby asked, surprised by Willow's assertion.

Willow gave a smirk. "Too many."

Bobby gave an answering smirk; he knew exactly what she meant. "Never gets easier, does it? You worry just as much every God damn time it happens."

Willow nodded. "I'm just lucky her sister..." She stopped, not sure how much to tell him. "Well, the local bad guys learn pretty quickly not to mess with Buffy or her family."

"What about you? I mean, Buffy sounds great, but having a badass witch looking out for you's got to have its perks." Dean entered the room and the conversation simultaneously.

Willow smiled at the compliment. "Dawn has a lot of people looking out for her that are more than capable of putting anyone who hurts her in a world of pain. Too bad I'm the only one who's here."

Dean felt a pang of jealousy. If only he and Sam had that, maybe their lives would have been a lot easier. "Well, I'm thinking you're more than enough." He tried to smile reassuringly, but in all honesty he'd seen this end badly for far too many people, including himself and Sam, to really believe what he said.

Dawn fidgeted non-stop for twenty minutes; testing her restraints at the same time as easing what muscle kinks she could that she'd gained in the car; but the bonds were tight and too restrictive for her efforts to do much good. She'd tried breathing in and tensing while Ruby tied her up, but the demon already knew that trick and managed to tie her securely anyway.

She wondered if Willow had guessed who had taken her yet and if she would break her no interference rule and attempt a rescue with the Winchesters. Whether she'd come at all wasn't even a question.

It still felt strange being here, with what only days ago had been fictional characters and places. She almost expected to wake up soon, or find out she'd been kidnapped in her world and was hallucinating under the influence of some heavy drugs or magic. Still, she'd been through weirder. Or at least as weird.

One of the stranger things was that she could tell the difference. She'd stayed in motels before; not often by anyone's standard, but even she could tell the room she was in was fairly typical. But there was something off. Something not quite right; a feeling that her surroundings weren't how they were meant to be. It was disconcerting, but she had a feeling she'd get used to it with time.

She scrunched her face in irritation as her nose began to itch. Her determination grew a little frantic at the sensation, her hands moving jerkily in an attempt to relieve the itching. Her arm scraped against something sharp and she pulled back, mouthing 'ow' as she stared down in puzzlement. The plastic back of the chair was a collection of horizontal bars, each joined to the vertical metal sides, and one of those bars had fractured. She leaned back against it, her neck straining as she kept her eyes of the break. As she slowly added more pressure the point of the fracture went pale and the sharp line stretched further, following the cloudy circle of pressured plastic until it nearly reached the far edge of the bar. She pulled a face in frustration as the line refused to stretch further. It was no use; she didn't have enough leverage to fully snap the bar.

She attempted to rub her still irritated nose against her shoulder and settled down to rest as well as she could.

The sound of the bathroom door banging shut woke Dawn from her fitful dozing, and she opened her eyes to the sight of a towel clad Ruby pulling fresh underwear from her bag.

The demon turned as Dawn shifted, making the chair squeak a little. "Oh, good morning sleepy head. I was about to wake you." Ruby said, unabashedly removing the towel and dressing. "Usually I'd just let you sit there, but considering we have a fair amount of time together left I figured letting you use the bathroom would be as much of a mercy to me as it is to you. Do you have any idea how much people stink when they piss themselves?" Ruby's face took on a look of distaste. She finished dressing and quickly cut Dawn free of her restraints. "The window's nailed shut, I checked, so I wouldn't waste any time trying to get out of it." She shooed Dawn towards the bathroom.

Dawn stumbled forwards, her legs nearly giving from the sharp jolts of pins and needles, growing to a steady numbness in her feet. She pulled the door closed behind her and used the bathroom for its intended purpose first and foremost.

She drip dried her hands in favour of using the crusty looking hand towel hanging next to the sink, wondering briefly where Ruby got her clean towel from. Her attention turned to the cupboard under the sink. She opened it and rummaged through the various cleaning fluids; useful if her kidnapper had been human and therefore vulnerable to bleach and astringents, but given her circumstances, not likely to do her much good.

She came across a small manicure set and examined the blunt scissors and clippers, deciding both were much to flimsy. She settled on taking the small but pointed nail file that probably wasn't much better, but made her feel a little less useless.

A knocking at the door and Ruby's loathsome, sarcastic voice signalled the end of her bathroom break.

She shoved everything back under the sink, glancing at the window and noting that Ruby hadn't lied about the nails, before heading back to the door. She was given a drink from a plastic bottle of water and tied to the chair once more. Dawn suppressed a small smile when the force of Ruby pushing her into it snapped the rest of the bar she's worked on the previous night. Much better than her blunt little nail file.


	6. Chapter 6

My grammar ain't great in this one, but it's legible and I've not updated in what feels like a good while, so here you go :)

Disclaimer: Don't own either of the beautiful shows :(

* * *

Dean watched out of the window as Sam talked to Ruby on his cell. The guy had got seriously twitchy over the last twelve hours and Dean was getting more than a little worried.

Willow came to stand next to him. "Ruby again?"

He nodded. Sam had been trying to call Ruby for hours; he'd been up since five thirty that morning (waking everyone else up as he clanked around in the kitchen) and it was ten fifteen now. His excuse had been checking for updates on both Dawn and Lilith, but Dean wasn't buying it. He'd only spoken to her the previous night and chances were she'd call if she found anything anyway. Something was up and Dean had no idea what.

"He finally got through, huh?" She said.

Dean turned to her with a frown. The was something about the way she said it, something that made him think she knew something she wasn't telling. "Yeah. Been talking a few minutes now."

Her eyes stayed on Sam, her expression one of sympathy and empathy.

Dean's own eyes narrowed in suspicion. He opened his mouth to question her but at that moment Sam hung up and headed back towards the house. He'd corner her later and question her then.

"Well?" Dean asked as his not so little brother re entered the room.

"She might have a lead on Lilith. I'm gonna head out in a couple hours and check it out with her." Sam said, his attempted casual tone failing miserably.

"On your own?" Dean's tone practically shouted that he wasn't interested in the bull his brother was selling.

"Yeah. I did manage on my own for four months Dean." Sam said tensely. "Besides, someone should be here to keep an eye on the Dawn situation."

"I'm sure Willow and Bobby can handle it."

"Dean!" Sam said, his voice a pairing of exhaustion and irritation.

"I'm not letting you go after Lilith alone, Sam." Dean folded his arms.

"I'm not going after her! It's just a lead, if it pans out then I'll call you." Sam turned on his puppy dog eyes. "Please, Dean. Just trust me, I can do this."

Dean's shoulders slumped. He rubbed his hand over his eyes. "Fine. But if you're gonna call me every night and you're gonna be back within five days, got it?"

Sam heaved an annoyed sigh. That was the kind of thing a parent said to their teenaged child. Still, better than nothing. "Fine." He turned and stomped away to collect his things.

Dean followed him with his eyes. "Is he telling the truth?"

Willow looked startled for a minute, wondering if he was talking to her, before casting her eyes down. "How should I know?"

He turned his gaze on her, his face hard. "Look, I know you know something, and you better tell me what it is while I'm asking nicely. You wouldn't like the hard way."

She swallowed. "I think he's going 'cause her wants to see Ruby." She told him the half-truth, hoping she'd get away with it.

He scrutinized her. "A lot of trouble to go to for a booty call."

"You don't know the in and outs of their relationship." She tried.

"Yeah, and I sure as hell don't understand it either. But I do understand Sammy, and he wouldn't be doing all this just to go see his girlfriend." He took a step closer, forcing her to look at him. "If I find out you know something about this that you're not telling me, then you better hope someone yanks your wiccan ass back where you came from before I get to you. You understand me?"

Willow smirked a little without meaning to. He had no idea who he was talking to.

"What's so damn funny?"

Willow opened her mouth to answer, but Dean's eyes suddenly left hers to look over her shoulder. She turned to see what he was looking at.

"Where's the key?" Castiel asked once he had their attention.

Dean frowned. "Huh?"

"The girl... Dawn." The angel said, as though it was obvious. To be fair it probably would have been if Dean's mind weren't still on Sam.

"She's missing." Willow replied, kicking herself for not having thought to ask the angel for help earlier. "We think someone or something might have taken her."

Castiel's impassive face took on a slightly alarmed look. On him in was as disturbing as panic. "How long?"

"Since last night."

Castiel disappeared only to reappear moments later. "I can't find her."

"No shit." Dean snapped. Figured whoever had her would be using hex bags or something. Wasn't like Willow hadn't tried a finding spell.

"You have to find her." Castiel pretty much commanded.

"Yeah, we're on it. We're doing the best we can." Dean snarked, turning away to see his brother come lumbering towards them.

"You don't understand. This is more important than one girl's life," His voice raised to regain the hunter's attention, "In case you had forgotten, her blood is a key that can open the doors between dimensions. It is imperative that you get her back before Lucifer's supporters can use her."

"Use her?" Dean looked a little confused. "How? I thought there had to be some ritual that could only happen once every gazillion years or something?"

"And yet they ended up here." The angel pointed out. "The energy required depends on the distance between realities and the size of the opening. The ritual and ideal conditions would be needed for a far jump as it would open many other worlds to get through to the intended target. Hell and Lucifer's cage are linked with this world. Only those two need be opened to set Lucifer free."

"Great. So our key could be opening Lucifer's time out room while we speak." Dean grumbled, his sarcasm and attitude hiding his real horror at the prospect.

Willow looked pale. "How much energy would be needed?" She asked quietly.

"Not much; her blood should suffice along with a directional spell." Castiel answered.

"But there was no bleeding to get us here." Willow's tone was pleading; she wanted so much to believe that Dawn needn't be in danger, wouldn't have to go through what Glory put her through again. Wouldn't have to die this time, with no blood relatives to take her place.

"You are two small, human lifeforms who hopped quickly between worlds. The window you used was neither very big nor open for very long. Lucifer is an archangel. The sheer size of the portal needed to get him here will utilize almost all of the energy in Dawn's blood. Any leftover will most likely be used as the demons clamour to escape hell." Cas explained.

Sam had been silent in all of this until now, looking between the three people in the room in front of him as he figured out what they were talking about. "So they'll kill her?"

Willow answered before Cas could. "They'll bleed her to death." She could feel her teeth press against each other to the point of pain, and her fingernails digging into the skin of her palms. Not again, this wasn't going to happen again.

Dean locked eyes with Castiel and then his brother. "Not if we can help it."

* * *

Dawn watched in confusion as Ruby re-entered the room and sat down in front of her.

"Looks like we're stickin' around awhile longer than I thought. Sam's coming to pay us a visit." Ruby watched Dawn's eyes widen and laughed. "No, he doesn't know you're here. And he won't do, because you're gonna keep real quiet while he's here, you got that cookie?"

Dawn just glared.

"Not that you'll have a choice of course. But if you do somehow find yourself in a position to make some noise, then for your sake I hope you have the common sense not to. Sammy isn't going to be in any state to stop me shutting you up." Ruby grinned. "But hey, it's not all bad news. Maybe if I position right you'll be able to catch some of the show through the slats."

Dawn glanced at the only thing with slats in the room. The built in wardrobe. Ruby was going to put her in the wardrobe.

Dawn spent the next few hours watching bad soap operas with Ruby, who pointed out at least three actors who had made deals to help their acting careers. Apparently LA was as much of a demon capitol here as it was back home.

Surprisingly, Ruby was fast becoming one of Dawn's favourite people to be kidnapped by. Miles better than Glory with her creepiness and constant threats and weird caresses, and definitely better than Sweet, who kept trying to get her to dirty dance with him, not to mention marry him of course, better than Harmony with her kinky wall shackles and whiney voice. All in all, being Ruby's captive was a comparative pleasure. Even if she did keep calling her 'cookie'.

She felt her stomach drop when a car pulled up outside and Ruby peeked out of the window.

"Time to go to your room." Ruby sang out, dragging the chair into the closet and reaching back to grab a scarf which she used as a gag, her fingers tying it around Dawn's head with practiced speed. "Remember what I said; Mommy and Daddy need some quiet time." Ruby swung the closet door shut and turned to face the motel room door.

Dawn tried to ignore the noises coming from the room outside of the closet as she twisted her arms awkwardly behind her to line up the cable ties around her wrists with the sharp plastic of the snapped back-rest bar. One arm was already feeling a little weak from the strain the angle put on it, and her wrists were red and chafed and covered in scratches from where the plastic had caught her skin instead of her bindings.

She let her arms drop for a moment to allow her muscles rest and let her blood flow return to normal. She'd hoped to get out easier than this but her wrists had taken worse, as had the rest of her. She paused to shudder as a loud moan came from Ruby; she wondered if she'd forgotten Dawn was there or if she got off on exibitionism.

Sam, who didn't know she was there, was surprisingly quiet. As much as she tried not to pay attention, she wondered if Sam was really all that aware of what was going on, or if the buzz from his demon blood fix was overriding Ruby's best efforts.

Her fingers were getting hot and her wrists were swelling, pressing against the plastic restraints and making the cuts and grazes sting. She renewed her efforts.

By the time the noises stopped she was over half way through, the edges she'd worn through now attacking her flesh along with the chair back. She winced as she glanced over her shoulder at the state of her arms and tried not to think about how much worse it might get. Especially if she failed and Ruby put fresh cable ties over her wounds. At least progress was faster now that the sharp edge of the chair bar didn't slip out of the split she'd carved so much. She should be done before Sam and Ruby woke up.

She heard Ruby breathe out loudly and shift in the bed, as Sam's feet landed on the carpet with a dull thud.

Maybe not before they woke up then.

She noticed that her arms had stilled while she listened to the hunter heading to the bathroom and set to work again, a little more frantic this time as she knew that once Sam had left it would take very little time for Ruby to wake up and decide to get back on the road.

She gasped as the plastic snapped, whipping against her skin and tearing through a pre-existing scratch.

The footsteps, which had come back into the room, paused at the involuntary noise.

Dawn wasn't sure how the sound had made it past the scarf in her mouth and into the room beyond the door, but she did know that Sam would probably wake up Ruby if he noticed Dawn was there. She kept as still as she could until she heard him settle back on the bed, before removing the gag and setting to work on the cable ties that held her ankles to the chair legs, feeling grateful for the nail file when the plastic bar on the chair refused to break off.

The nail file took a lot longer than the broken plastic to cut through the cable ties, but it got the job done in the end and the couple in the room had been silent for a while when the last bond broke.

Dawn raised herself gingerly to her feet, hands braced against the closet walls to compensate for her numb and wobbly legs. She shifted quickly from foot to foot as the pins and needles set in, biting her lip to stifle the gasps of pain the feeling intensified before fading.

With circulation in her legs restored, Dawn laid her hand against the closet door, turning the handle with her other hand, and pushing it slowly open. Only a slight creak came from the wood from the movement, and she stepped into the room with a feeling of relief.

Her eyes stayed on the bodies tangled in the bed sheets as she made her way to the exit, pausing to pick up Ruby's car keys in the scarf she'd been gagged with. A small jangling sound still erupted, making the sleeping couple stir, but neither of them awoke and Dawn allowed her body to unfreeze and straighten, continuing her escape.

She closed the motel room door behind her with a breath of giddy triumph and turned towards Ruby's car.

She hoped there was a map inside, because she had no idea where she was or how to get back to Bobby's, and she doubted she'd be stopping for directions anytime soon.


	7. Chapter 7

Okay, this one's a bit of a filler, but I hope no worse for it. POV's will become a bit more fixed from now on, so some chapters might have only Dawn, or both Dean and Willow but no Dawn or Sam. Everyone will get a go though, just in another chapter. :)

Disclaimer: No sexy witches, hunters or angels amongst my possessions I'm afraid. I don't even own Ruby. :(

* * *

Dawn glanced in the rearview mirror for the twentieth time that minute. She wasn't sure quite what she was expecting; she was driving Ruby's car and Ruby was hardly likely to ask Sam to help her chase her kidnapping victim. Still, there was a chance Ruby had woken and sent some demon goons after her. Not that she'd recognize them as such if she saw them.

She breathed steadily in through her nose and out through her mouth. Partly to stop herself having a panic attack and partly to stop herself throwing up. Strange how eating very little (two candy bars from a vending machine and tap water since she last ate at Bobby's) made a body want to empty what little was actually in there. Seemed a bit counterproductive really.

Her wrists stung and ached like crazy, but bizarrely her mind was fretting more about the drips of blood running down her arms and into her sleeves and sometimes dripping onto her legs, than it was about the wounds themselves. She'd been driving for over an hour now and the wounds had tried to close several times, but her movements as she drove, made worse by the fact Ruby's car was emphatically not an automatic, pulled at the scabs and opened them again.

Her whole body ached, both from tiredness and from the positions she'd had to sit and sleep in during her little stay with Ruby, but she daren't pull over to stretch and rest a little. Not yet.

She turned on the radio to keep her mind of her discomfort and absently sung along to a pop song that started playing from halfway through. She smiled a little at the thought that the music charts had much the same songs in them as back home.

It was long dark by the time Dawn pulled in, unable to keep going without rest. She dug around in the glove compartment for the bottle of water she knew she'd seen there when she looked for a map earlier, and took small sips until her mouth and throat felt less raw and sandpapery. She looked reluctantly at the back seat before deciding to just recline the front seat as far as it would go. She'd be able to get back on the road quicker from here if she caught sight of any demonic pursuers, even if it would be awkward to drive without the support of a back rest until she had the time to put it back up.

As tired as she was her body instinctively tried to stay awake; striving to remain alert and not give in to oblivion. After five minutes she sat up and pulled out her phone. She set an alarm for three hours and laid back down to make a second attempt at sleep.

It seemed like she lay there forever, a battle raging in her body between serotonin and adrenaline, and whatever other chemicals and hormones were responsible for sleep and fight or flight. When she did drift off she didn't notice it; her thoughts slipping into daydreams slipping into dreams.

Sam woke at the clicking sound of a door closing. His mind was still a riot of thoughts and feelings after his last dose of Ruby's blood and his slumber had been shallow at best. He sat up, careful not to wake Ruby. It taken long enough to get her to start sleeping, he didn't want to spoil the habit before it had even begun. He still held hope that if she got into human habits and ways of living, she could further suppress the demon part of her and remember just how it felt to be alive.

He stroked her hair off her face, smiling a little as she mumbled in her sleep. Dean was wrong about her; after everything he'd faced with Ruby at his side, he just knew she couldn't be like other demons.

It took a moment to remember the clicking sound that had awoken him, his mind spinning between thoughts at a dizzying rate. When he finally did, he pulled himself to stand, revelling in the strength he could feel coursing through him, and walked over to the window.

A car was leaving the motel parking lot. He couldn't really see it from his post at the window, but he could see the empty space where Ruby's car had been when he entered the room. He cursed quietly. Apparently even rogue agents from hell weren't immune to having their cars stolen.

Turning back to the bed he saw the wardrobe door ajar. A frown crossed his face as he took in the bits of white plastic he could see poking out from the gap. He pulled the door further open to reveal a chair, the back broken and smeared with blood, and more of the white plastic strips. Something was very wrong here.

He looked back at where Ruby lay, still oblivious to everything going on around her, and glanced around for her bag. There, on the bedside table.

A quick search found a bag of plastic cable ties identical to the ones in the closet. Whoever had been in there, Ruby knew about them. She'd put them there.

He felt sick.

After a moment he discovered that wasn't just an emotional metaphor and threw up in the toilet, rinsing his mouth out with tap water and splashing some on his face for good measure.

He gripped the sink tightly. There was probably a perfectly good reason that Ruby had someone tied up in her motel room closet. Maybe it was another demon. Although he hadn't seen any devils traps around the chair.

He needed to wake Ruby, get her side of the story. Get her to tell him what was going on.

Willow sighed and blew out the thick white candle in front of her. It was no use. No matter what spell she tried or how many times she tried it, Dawn was under the magical radar. There had been a flicker not long ago, a slight pull down towards Kansas, but it'd gone before she could get much further than that.

Dawn could be anywhere in a southerly direction by now. If you took aeroplanes into account, there was a chance she wasn't even in the USA anymore.

"Coffee?" Dean called from the kitchen.

"No thanks, I'm gonna try to get some sleep. No use to anyone if I'm falling asleep on my feet." She called back, ending on a yawn as if to prove her point.

Dean nodded even though she couldn't see him from her position facing away from him in the other room. He was too wired to sleep himself. In truth, he had no idea how Willow could even think of sleep; the apocalypse was hanging over their heads with a new certainty now there was more than one way to let the devil out of his box, and it sounded a lot less complicated than the one he was already busting his balls trying to stop. There was also the not so small fact that Dawn was missing and it seemed her death was the new quick-cook end of the world recipe. He knew that if it were Joe in that position (because as close as he could see Willow was to Dawn, he didn't even waste time comparing it to his love for his baby brother) he would be damned if he was taking a nice long sleep; a nap maybe, but not full on PJ's and comforters sleep. He was suffering enough insomnia just from that nagging feeling he had about Sam these days.

He shook his head absently; either Dawn had been kidnapped more times even than Sammy and Willow had faced down enough armageddons to sleep through them, or she had one hell of a meditation technique. He'd try and remember to ask her what her secret was when she woke up.

For now, coffee.

He leaned against the counter as the kettle boiled (Bobby would drink hot dirt if it kept him awake for research; a coffee machine just seemed pointless) and reached blindly for the instant granules. He heaped a spoon into his cup and searched for milk or coffee white. A small carton of UHT was unopened in a random cupboard, he snagged it along with a sachet of sugar clearly pilfered from a diner at some point in history. Decent coffee he could handle black, but the cheap mud that Bobby bought needed something to help it go down.

The kettle finally finished it's loud hacking roar and Dean poured it's contents into the mug.

"Did Willow find anything?"

Dean spun around, scalding water trailing from the still tilted kettle. He quickly righted it and stepping back from the water falling over the counter before it could hit his legs. "Shit! Dude, don't do that!"

Cas frowned, puzzled. "I am not in your 'personal space'."

"I mean creep up on me like that!" He grabbed a dishevelled tea-towel that was thin and torn enough to do little more than swirl the water around rather than mop it up. He dropped it back to the work surface as the water soaked up to his fingers.

Castiel looked no less informed and repeated his question.

"No, a small blip a few hours ago, but not enough to get a lock on her." Dean replied, salvaging his coffee and sitting at the kitchen table.

"Blip? Get a lock? I don't understand." Castiel sighed. As endearing as Dean's references and slang could be, it was sometimes wiser to just wake Sam or Bobby. Even though they both slept with guns.

"We thought we found her, but the spell failed before we could get her location." Dean decoded his own words.

"Why didn't you call me? I might have been able to keep the spell fixed!" If angels felt a full range of emotions then Castiel was sure he would have murdered the elder Winchester many times over by now.

Dean frowned. "It wasn't 'fixed' in the first place, the spell moved a little south and that was it. We don't need you to come wipe our asses every time we do anything! If we need your help, we'll ask for it!"

They engaged in a staring match for a few moments until Dean realised there was no way to win against someone who didn't need to blink.

"How far south did it move?" Castiel asked when Dean inevitably looked away.

"I don't know, out of Souix Falls? I wasn't the one doing the spell." Dean replied frustratedly. Cas looked about to turn and wake Willow, but Dean stopped him with a hand on his arm. "Don't. Us humans need to sleep sometimes, and if you want your powerful witch to be fully functioning while we look for Dawn then she needs a couple hours."

Castiel looked down at Dean's hand on his arm until the hunter removed it. "Very well. I will search the roads heading south outside of Souix Falls. Will six hours be sufficient?"

"Yeah, yeah six hours should do just fine." Dean nodded, the angel vanishing before he'd finished his sentence.

He shook his head tiredly and sipped his coffee, cringing as little at the still to hot liquid met his lips and tongue.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Not my shows, I'm just a little obsessed with them.

* * *

Sam watched as Ruby climbed out of bed and looked at the inside of the wardrobe. "She took my car?"

Sam nodded. "Who was she?"

Ruby gave a frustrated half sigh half growl. "I'm not sure. She was saying things, things she couldn't know."

"So you just thought you'd kidnap her?" He asked incredulously.

"We don't have time to waste! If she knows something about Lilith, or about us, we need to know about it and asking nicely wasn't cutting it!" Ruby justified. "She knows about you. About us." She added for good measure.

"You mean about..?" He didn't finish the sentence.

"About the blood, yes! That's why she couldn't stay around Dean and that stupid angel of his!" Ruby stated.

"Wait, you're talking about Dawn?" Sam gave a mirthless grin. "This is ridiculous. Why are we even having this conversation?" His voice grew steadily louder. "You can't just go around kidnapping people! It's not right!"

"Well, she's probably on her way back to Dean right now, so it doesn't really matter does it? Doesn't matter if she blabs to him about all the nasty stuff we do together, doesn't matter if she tells his angel how we plan to stop Lilith. Doesn't matter if she's working for Lilith and on her way back to whatever sick mission she's on. Poor little girl can get on with whatever she likes now that she's out of big bad Ruby's clutches." She paused in her rant. "God, Sam. Did you ever trust me at all? Or is it so easy to trust some girl you just met over me?"

Sam froze at the mention of what Dawn might tell Dean. "How do you know she knows?"

"She knew who I was with no introduction. She knew to be worried when I found out she knew who I was. She knew why I was calling you and vice versa. She knows a lot of things she shouldn't know." Ruby gave him a hard look. "She might even know some things about Lilith. Go after her and find out for yourself if you don't believe me."

"Yeah, I'll do that." He muttered, still lost in the imagined consequences of Dawn telling Dean about him and Ruby.

"Just-" Ruby reached out to his arm as he turned to leave. "Be careful? We don't know enough about her to trust her."

He nodded, pulling on his jacket and fishing out the keys to the car he'd brought.

Dawn shot up halfway in her seat as her alarm jarred her out of sleep. A quick glance around told her that she was still alone; no other cars were in sight and she was still safe in Ruby's car. She rubbed her face and sat up fully, pulling the seat back into position and swallowing some more bottled water. Her stomach churned ominously and she decided to stop for food and gas at the next place she saw. Better risk a short break for food than risk passing out from low blood sugar while sighed. She'd hoped to only stop once or twice if she could help it.

As she speculated what the others would think of her disappearance, she wondered why Willow hadn't done a finding spell yet. The thought faded as she spotted a services sign alongside the road. Only a little further.

Pulling into the small gas station, she glanced around at the other vehicles there. One truck and two cars. All the drivers out of sight. She filled up the tank and headed for the little building beside the pumps.

Only to realise she hadn't got any money.

She searched her pockets frantically for anything she could use, turning up a stick of gum and a quarter. Her eyes prickled as her gaze darted about, trying to find a solution to her predicament.

Dawn froze as her eyes fell on a third car pulling into the station, the driver in shadow. She knew that car. It had been parked outside when she left Ruby's motel room.

She climbed back in Ruby's car, ready to drive as soon as Sam was out of her way. But he didn't move. He'd already spotted her. She wondered if running was an option.

"Dawn?" He was out of the car now.

She stayed silent until the light inside his car revealed that he was alone. Still wary, she climbed out of Ruby's car.

Sam stalked over quickly. "Are you alright?"

Dawn subconsciously moved to hide her injured wrists. "I'm fine."

He jumped straight to the point. "What you saw in that motel room-"

"I know. I can't tell anybody." Dawn interrupted with a tired eye roll.

"It's just they wouldn't understand. I'm doing this to get stronger, so I can be a better hunter. Dean would just think..." He sighed and dragged his hand over his face. "I don't even know what he'd think."

She nodded.

"I didn't know what she did to you. I didn't know she had you." Sam informed her when she looked no more relaxed.

"Yeah, there's a lot about her you don't know." Dawn muttered, barely audible.

"Sorry, what was that?" Sam had heard, but he wanted her to repeat it. He wanted to know what she meant.

She smiled unconvincingly. "Nothing. Let's head back to Bobby's. Willow's probably worried sick by now and I want to go home."

Sam made a rash decision. He needed to keep Dawn away from Dean until he knew for sure she wouldn't tell him about the demon blood. He also needed to know what else she knew. "They're not there anymore. Willow did a finding spell and I guess it bounced, 'cause it sent her all the way to Illinois. It's not that far though, we can probably make it in six or seven hours from here." It wasn't a lot of time, but hopefully he could push for more and make the most of it.

"Can I call her and let her know I'm okay?" Dawn asked cautiously.

"Better not. Ruby isn't stupid, she'll have woken up by now and seen that we're both gone, and she's had access to my phone far too many times for us to be sure she hasn't bugged it or something." Sam made it up as he went along. Luckily Dawn seemed tired enough to buy it. "We'll take Ruby's car; it's got wards on it already, I'll just need to check for anything she might've used to keep tabs on it." He strode purposely to the car behind Dawn, the exhausted girl turning to watch him. There was nothing on or in the car that Ruby could use to find them; presumably she wasn't expecting to lose it. "We're good. You go pay for gas while I move my car."

"Umm." Dawn shifted. "I-I don't have any money." She admitted, avoiding his eyes.

"Oh." He stopped and dug in his pockets and handed her a pile of bills. Luckily he'd been using cash while at Bobby's and still had a fair amount on him. "Here. You should probably pick up some drinks and snacks for the drive, too."

Dawn sagged in relief, offering a wan smile. "Thanks."

Her mood improved as she looked over the chilled shelves of sandwiches, two large bags of chips, two chocolate bars, two energy bars and assorted bags of candy already in her hand basket. She was still a little wary of Sam (who knows what he'd do with that demon blood still zinging around his body?) but her relief in a friendly face and the promise of food and rest, and someone to watch her back until she got back to Willow, were more than enough for the flight or fight instincts to die down. She picked up four packs of sandwiches (she didn't know about Sam, but she was hungry now and wasn't stupid enough to think she wouldn't be again before they got there)along with two litre bottles of water and pulled her sleeves down over her wrists, hoping the cash register attendant wouldn't notice the blood and ask questions she couldn't answer.

She shot him a nervous smile, but his gaze never left the basket, then the register, money, register again. Dawn had a feeling that he wouldn't even be able to tell someone if she'd been male or female if asked. She shrugged off her annoyance and reasoned that under the circumstances his ignorance was probably a good thing. She murmured a thank you and left, gripping the bag tightly in her weak fingers. Damn it! She should have picked up some first aid supplies! She nearly headed back in, but Sam was waving her over and she still had the fuzzy grateful feeling of being rescued, so put it aside a moment, reasoning that none of her cuts were that serious and could wait a while longer to be seen to.

"You need to use the rest-room or anything?" Sam asked.

Dawn smiled and shook her head wanly; she'd used it straight after she entered the shop, it was one of those weird ones that was actually inside rather than around the back of the building. At least that meant that not only was it cleaner that the average gas station rest-room, but she didn't have to ask for a key either.

"Okay, let's get going then." He headed for the driver's seat without asking. Not that Dawn was really fit to drive anyway, but it would have been nice to be asked.

She sighed; nobody ever treated her like an adult, why would Sam be any different? She climbed in the passenger side and handed over the keys without a word.

Sam took the keys, barely looking until the blood on her sleeve caught his attention. He frowned, wondering if she'd done it to herself or it was Ruby's work. "What happened to your arm?"

Dawn pulled her cuffs down self-consciously. "Plastic cable ties are sharp. As are broken plastic chair parts." She explained.

"So, you did it getting out? Ruby didn't do anything?" Sam had to make sure.

"No, apart from some rough handling and neglect she was the perfect lady." Dawn answered bitterly. It didn't seem worth her while to lie.

Sam breathed out. "Okay." He put the keys in the ignition. "Okay." He repeated before pulling out of the station and getting back on the road.

* * *

Sorry to those who were hoping for a Sam/Ruby confrontation just yet, but wouldn't really fit with the storyline I'm going for.

Also, someone suggested to me a Sam/Dawn pairing, thoughts?


	9. Chapter 9

Not a great chapter I'm afraid, a bit on the filler side. Had some stuff going on that hasn't really left a lot of energy for writing, but I figure if I keep pushing forward I'll get the good stuff back.

Btw I chose Derby, Kansas 'cause it's a mash up of the boys' birth place and mine. Don't know anything about it but thought the fact there was a Derby there was cool.

Disclaimer: Still haven't won the lottery and bought the rights to the shows.

* * *

Dean let his head drop to the roof on the Impala, ignoring the dull throb it illicited in favour of the sun warmed metal against his skin.

Sam hadn't called or texted in over twelve hours.

To most people, family or not, it wouldn't be a big deal. It wouldn't even be unusual. But for the Winchesters it could only mean bad things. This in mind, Dean pressed the call button on his phone for the fifth time in fifteen minutes, his shoulders slumping as it went straight through to voicemail again. Sam's phone was either turned off, broken, or somewhere without a signal. None of the above would be a situation that would make Dean less anxious.

Backing up off Sam's contact, he called Cas' instead. The phone rang a few moments before the angel picked up.

"Dean." The rough voice sounded even more gravelly with the slight static noise from his surroundings.

"Hey Cas, any luck so far?" Dean picked absently and a speck of dirt that had stuck to the car.

"No."

Dean supressed a small chuckle at the angel's one word answer. Another time he might have mentioned it, but right now he had other things on his mind. Like his brother acting weird and disappearing, and the oncoming apocalypse. In that order. "You heard from Sam?"

"No."

"Okay, I just thought maybe he might have prayed for help or something..?" Dean continued, not sure whether he would be more relieved or worried if Sam had prayed to Castiel.

"If Sam had prayed for help I would be with him right now." Cas said, annoyance clear in his tone.

Dean sucked in air. He knew the angel was looking out for him, and for his sake Sam, but hearing that Cas would go to help Sam no questions asked if he asked for help... Just the thought of someone else being there for Sam brought grateful warm fuzzies to his chest, but an angel? One who could pretty much be there wherever and whenever he was needed, and who really didn't have to be, who had more than one reason not to be, in fact... He coughed the tightness out of his throat. "Okay. Well, he's not answering his phone so I was wondering if you could-"

"I can't find him." Castiel interrupted before Dean could finish asking. His level tone held just a hint if concern and Dean felt his heart drop to his stomach.

"What do you mean you can't find him?"

There was a pause for a moment on the other end of the line. "He's out of my reach. Someone or something is shielding him from angelic detection."

"Shit." Dean muttered, his mind instantly jumping to the worst possible reasons for Sam being off the angel radar.

"I will keep trying." Castiel offered, his voice going distant. "I have to go."

And just like that the line went dead.

Dean heaved a sigh at the angel's lack of social decorum and turned to head back inside. Maybe Willow could get a beat on Sam.

As it turned out, Willow was no more able to find Sam than she was able to find Dawn. And if that wasn't a sign of bad things then Dean didn't know what was. In their lives there was no such thing as a coincidence.

They continued with periodic finding spells and Cas dropped a text every few hours giving and asking for updates, but there wasn't really anything to tell one another.

Dean went outside as Willow cast yet another spell, the witchcraft still making him more than a little uncomfortable, but hey, so did making deals and having chats with demons. Didn't mean he wouldn't do it or would stop it. He thumped down onto the porch, legs flying forwards as he threatened to topple backwards, and stared aimlessly at the ground between his feet.

He hated this. He was not only useless, but even more useless than the useless people around him. Castiel's search wasn't picking up anything so far, but at least he was searching. Willow's spells were failing every time, but again, at least she was looking. Bobby was looking up new finding spells in case Willow's just didn't work here at the same time as checking his contacts and the news for information. All Dean could do was sit on his ass. He was neither use nor ornament, just taking up the others' attention with his brooding.

He wanted to do something; to fight, to drag his baby brother back home, kicking and screaming if necessary, and give anything that tried to stop him a kick in the face it'd never forget. But how could he when he didn't even know where his brother was? Didn't have a clue to go on; no dragmarks to follow, no witness to interrogate, no suspect to...

His head shot up.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid." He muttered as he stood and pulled his phone from his pocket. He pressed the call button and tapped his foot in time with the dial tone. A noise at the other end told him the call had been picked up. "Ruby?"

A sigh sounded down the phone. "Yeah."

"Where's Sam?"

"How should I know? He left here sometime last night." Ruby answered tetchily.

Dean swallowed down the urge to crush his phone. "What time? Did he say where he was going?"

"I dunno, late. I was asleep. And no, he didn't tell me. I assumed he was heading back to you." The demon answered, concern seeping into her tone. "Why? Have you not heard from him?"

"Not a damn peep. Can you find him?" Dean asked. He hated asking Ruby for help, especially seeing as he was nowhere near convinced that she wasn't behind this, but it was all he had to go on.

"I don't know, I don't have him microchipped. Have you tried your angel bestie?" Ruby's sarcastic tones reached his ear with sickening quality. The sound of her voice was enough to make Dean want to punch her, female body or no.

"Just try, okay?" Dean snapped. "Where are you?"

"Derby, Kansas. Why?"

"Where exactly?" Dean pressed.

Ruby named a motel and Dean hung up. Time for him and the Impala to come into their own.


	10. Chapter 10

Getting very mixed responses to the whole Dawn/Sam thing, so I'm putting a poll up. If you have an opinion either way, please go and vote there :) The poll will be open for some time as if it does happen, it's not going to be desperately sudden and will probably take a good few chapters to reach that point.

In this fic Sam would only be about four or five years older than Dawn, so age isn't that much of an issue and they do have a hell of a lot in common, but then there would be a lot of trust building on Sam's part and more than a little on Dawn's part, some of the plot developments I have planned would slow it down quite a lot. There's also the fact to consider that everyone will probably end up back in their own world at the end, though their might be a couple of ways around that.

Anyway, enough rambling, the poll should be up now so go vote! :)

Disclaimer: Not mine.

* * *

"And they sung about it?" Sam asked incredulously.

Dawn nodded enthusiastically. "Yep."

"A vampire?"

"Uhuh." Dawn confirmed.

"And a hunter?"

Dawn only hesitated a second before answering in the affirmative. Buffy was technically a slayer, but she did the same job as hunters. Just more efficiently and with bonus super powers.

"That's freakin' weird." Sam shook his head, mentally trying to picture Dean singing about his deepest emotions. The picture wouldn't even form. As for the vampire... A singing vampire comforting a hunter was something he'd honestly pay to see.

"Tell me about it." Dawn agreed. "So what about you? Any crazy stories?"

Sam thought for a moment. "A guy was abducted by aliens who probed him then made him slow dance."

Dawn laughed. She knew the episode but the thought was still hilarious, especially hearing it from Sam. He had this slight matter of fact way of saying it, along with this tinge of hope, as if he wanted her to like him, to find him funny. It took some away from the blood junkie image the show had put into her head. "Abducted by aliens?" She questioned, trying her best for genuine skepticism.

"Yeah. Well, no. Kinda. It was a thing called a Trickster. It creates elaborate scenarios to mete out poetic justice." Sam tried to explain. "Actually ran into the same one again. He made me relive Dean dying over and over for months. The day just on a loop like groundhog day."

Dawn kept quiet for a moment, not really knowing what to say after that. "Similar thing happened to my sister. Turned out a load of geeks did it basically for kicks. I don't really know how, no one ever bothered explaining that stuff to me back then. Still don't really."

"Sucks doesn't it?" Sam sympathized.

"Hmm?"

"Being treated like a kid all the time; like you're not grown up enough to know everything or make your own decisions." Sam elaborated.

Dawn nodded. "Especially when it's the big stuff. Like whether or not you want to kill monsters, or if you want to see your dead mother, or if you want your only family to sacrifice themselves to hell so you can live."

Sam glanced at her sharply, resisting the urge to slam on the breaks and interrogate her. "How do you know about that?"

Dawn cursed herself. She was actually talking about her own experiences, but of course she was well aware of Sam's. "Know about what? Buffy threw herself into the portal for the hell dimension Glory opened because only my blood could stop it. She said..." Dawn broke off, steadying her breath. Her voice had been steady enough when she started speaking, but the second she allowed the memory to appear she was struggling to maintain composure. "She said that I was made from her. That my blood was her blood. Then she jumped." She twisted her sleeve between her fingers, staring down at the bloodied fabric. "She didn't ask me. I was ready to do it myself, started stepping forward, but she stopped me. Said this was what she was meant to do and told me to keep living." She replayed her sister's parting speech in her head as she had done thousands of times since that day. It didn't get any easier talking about it, no matter how long it had been, how many times she'd talked to her friends about it when they begged her to open up, no matter that Buffy came back and hadn't gone to hell. But once she had opened her mouth to explain herself she realized just how much she needed to talk to him about this, because he was the only person she'd ever met who knew. He knew exactly what it felt like; no patronizing, no 'it wasn't your fault' speeches, no pity. Just the empathy and understanding of someone who'd been there, done that.

There weren't exactly support groups for this stuff.

Sam stared at Dawn incredulously; only remembering to bring his eyes back to the road when she attempted to cover a sob with a cough. "Y-you..." He wasn't really sure what he'd planned on saying so he trailed off to think about it. "This is ridiculous."

It was ridiculous how a conversation that had started in such a light-hearted humour could devolve so quickly into this. It was ridiculous that they were both burdened with all this shit from childhood onwards. It was ridiculous just how much they shared. The thought of her lying barely crossed his mind. He may not have been the best judge of character, but he knew what those emotions looked like from seeing them every day in the mirror. If she was that good of an actress that he was screwed anyway.

"I... I mean, Dean..." Sam sighed. "I died once." He glanced over at Dawn, registering her slightly bloodshot, but interested eyes as she tried to sniffle quietly. "Dean brought me back. He sold his soul. He got my life and one year before collection, just bargained it away like it was nothing. He... He went to hell. I couldn't stop it, they just took him."

Dawn stayed silent. She hadn't really expected him to open up to her; this wasn't like an AA meeting, 'hi, I'm Dawn, my sister went to hell for me and I have problems with massive guilt, low self-worth and anger', 'hi, I'm Sam, ditto but gender swapped'. She just wanted to know that he knew.

"Cas, Castiel, he brought him back. Dragged whatever was left of him out of the pit and glued him back together." Sam continued. "Something to do with heavenly plans. We're not really sure why." It wasn't a complete lie; the reasons the angels had given were very vague and cryptic.

"Buffy didn't go to hell." Dawn said, her voice barely audible. "She thought she would, but she didn't. She went to heaven."

Sam shot her a puzzled look.

"We all thought she was in some horrible place, tortured and hurt and alone. But she wasn't. And when we brought her back we thought we were saving her, we thought..." Dawn took a deep breath and spoke a little louder. "She was dragged kicking and screaming out of heaven and dumped in her body with all the pain and fear because we couldn't let her die. She had to dig herself... She had to dig herself out of her own grave." She licked a tear off her lip. "She once said living was hell. That we took her out of heaven and made her live in hell."

Sam let her calm down a little before asking the question he was desperate to know the answer to. "How did you bring her back?"

Dawn met his eyes for a second. "Willow."

Sam let out a long breath through his teeth. "Cas wasn't lying when he said she was powerful." He mumbled.

Dawn gave a small smile. "You have no idea."

* * *

I know the big heart to heart was a bit OOC, but as I said, there aren't exactly support groups for it and Sam's always been more open than Dean. I also know Dawn was fairly well adjusted to the idea by the end of the show, but I don't honestly believe that's something you would ever get over and maybe her being so together about it in the show would make it more likely she'd be desperate to talk to Sam about it so she could let herself not be so well adjusted for a while and just mope with what is, let's face it (Kripke obviously watched Buffy and as much as the characters of the boys were original, they were almost definitely inspired by in places), her Supernatural counterpart.

Wow! Wasn't I feeling chatty there! Sorry about that to those of you who read all the notes! LOL


	11. Chapter 11

Just noticed it's been over a month since I last posted. Oops! Sorry about that.

Disclaimer: Don't own any of the characters, Whedon and Kripke are the rightful owners, even if there is a lot of abuse and neglect on their part.

* * *

"I'm coming too."

Dean froze with his hand on the car door. "You should stay here and keep doing the finding spells."

Willow snorted. "Those spells are next to useless. I don't know if my magic doesn't work here, or someone's hiding them, but either way my staying here is pointless. Maybe Ruby knows something that could help me adapt the spell."

Dean pouted a little as he thought through the pros and cons of bringing Willow with him. One of the major pros being that she was a scary, powerful witch who was probably coming whether he said yes or not. "Fine. But you stay out of my way and we do things my way."

"With brute force and ignorance?" Willow muttered under her breath. It had only been a couple of days and she was already on the point of murder from all the insults and comments about witches.

Dean pretended not to hear her and continued climbing into the driver's seat. He needed to be on the road as of yesterday and arguing with Willow was not going to help with the frustration that was already strongly urging him to blow all the stop signs, red lights and speed limits on the way to Derby. Luckily, Willow wasted no time clambering into the passenger seat. Wasn't like there was anything for her to pack; she'd been alternating between the clothes she got here in and some of Dean's clothes when those went in the laundry.

Dean was pulling off before Willow had managed to pull the door shut.

"Where are you going?"

Dean cursed but showed no other sign of surprise. Willow on the other hand jumped out of her skin, instincts rearing to duck out of the way and grab a weapon.

Castiel watched her startled movements curiously.

"To have a little chat with Ruby." Dean replied. "How did you even know we'd gone anywhere?"

"After Dawn and then Sam's disappearance I have been monitoring you both closely." Castiel replied, nonplussed and serene, before a slight edge crept into the open stare he directed at Dean. "You have contact information for the demon?"

"'Course. She's a bitch and I don't trust her as far as Minnie Mouse can throw her, but if Sam's gonna insist on seeing her then I'm damn sure gonna know how to get ahold of her." The car gave a small lurch as Dean pushed down on the gas a little suddenly, his hands clenching the wheel tighter, though his face betrayed none of his sudden lack of control.

Cas looked like he was on the verge of breaking his unspoken vow never to pull a human facial expression and roll his eyes. "Why did you not pursue her earlier?"

Dean's scowl deepened. "'Cause I'm not a god damned angel like yourself, Cas," he said, sarcasm dripping from his tone, "I'm human and humans don't have that infallible bullcrap going for us. We screw up and we don't always think of the solution the second we know the problem."

Willow sighed and leaned back into her seat, her arms folding across her chest as she determinedly turned her attention away from the manly displays around her. She didn't care what the show writers had to say; angel or no angel, Cas was most definitely male. There was no other explanation for his attitude. She wondered if all angels were male or if there were actually some angels that wanted just to slap Lucifer and all the demons across the face and not talk to them for the rest of time. Not that she hadn't known plenty of girls with attitude and anger problems, just there was always a slight difference, a certain hardness with a double helping of sadistic moves that had no other point but to _hurt, _while men were all about winning and dominating. Men wanted to prove who was stronger. Women just wanted their enemies to feel powerless, vulnerable. She would know after all. Guilt washed over her as she remembered the pain she'd inflicted on so many people, her friends included.

While Willow was contemplating the difference between men and women's attitudes, Dean had gone back to glaring out of the windshield with Castiel staring intently at the back of his head. She shook her own head and sighed. It was going to be a long drive.

They pulled up at Ruby's motel still in silence. Castiel had repeatedly disappeared to check new locations and whether Sam and Dawn were still hidden, but had returned very quickly. As more time went on Sam and Dawn could have gone further, there were more places to check, but he was still an angel who could teleport. Willow had spent most of the journey surreptitiously doing every spell she could get away with in the confines of the car and had determined that while it had slightly different effects a lot of the time, most aspects of her magic were in working order.

Ruby flung the door open as soon as Dean's knuckles struck it. "It's about time! Do you know how risky it is for me to be sitting still like this? Anybody could have found me!"

"What about your fancy hex bags?" Dean retorted as he barged into her room, eyes already searching for Sam like he might be standing in the corner with a lampshade on his head for camouflage.

"I'm out." Ruby stepped back to allow Willow into the room, pausing with widened eyes when Willow came close. "Woah, packing some big guns these days, huh? Thought you boys learned your lesson about witches."

Willow blanked her, too used to the comments for more than a tensing of the shoulders to betray her offence. "What happened to them? Far as I know there's no expiration date." She asked, already suspicious. She knew who Ruby really was, and as much as she wasn't going to alter the world she was in unnecessarily, she also wasn't going to stand back and let Ruby's actions or lack thereof harm Dawn. If she got even the slightest hint that Ruby was behind Dawn's disappearance then the demon would find herself wishing for Dawn's safe return as much as Willow.

"The good ones were in my car. It's been stolen." Ruby used the hand not currently resting on her hip aggravated wife style to swing the door shut as Castiel appeared in the room without passing by her.

All three turned to look at her incredulously.

"What?" Ruby demanded, looking more than a little embarrassed.

"You let someone steal your car?" Dean asked, a laugh in his voice.

"I didn't 'let' anyone do anything; they stole it while I was asleep." She snapped back.

"Demons don't sleep." Castiel said casually, looking suspiciously and frustratedly at the closet, like he was sure something was off but couldn't work out what.

She walked over to the bed and dropped into a sitting position heavily enough to bounce on the mattress slightly, leaning back on her arms to she didn't have to kink her neck to look at them. "We don't have to. Doesn't mean we can't."

"Lot of stuff happens when you have your nap, doesn't it?" Dean said bitterly, kicking about in Ruby's discarded clothes for anything of Sam's.

"Could Sam have taken it?"

Ruby and Dean turned to Willow.

"Why would he have done that? He had his own car with him." The demon said and pulled a face. "If it could be called a car."

"The hex bags, they work against angels?" Dean asked Ruby without looking at her.

"Sure." She replied confidently, like there was no question.

Cas scoffed. "Temporarily."

Ruby glared at the angel, though her eyes held a little spark of worry that Willow couldn't help but smirk at.

Dean didn't notice. "How 'bout high level witches? The bags good against most spells?"

"Yeah, if not all. It'd take something pretty powerful to break through those, nothing that I know of could do it." Ruby inspected the nails on one hand. Willow could tell she was lying through her teeth and she could see Dean and Cas thought the same, though none of them knew how to voice it without Ruby getting overly defensive and lying some more.

"Gimme the exact spell you used on them. And when I say exact, I mean every ingredient down to the breed of cat and the colour of the bag." Dean demanded.

Ruby sighed. "It won't do you any good."

"Yeah, well, you'll forgive me if I don't take your word on that." He grabbed the notepad from the small table and searched around for a pen.

"Hey, I want to find Sam as much as you do. I wouldn't mess up my chances of finding him just to piss you off." She grumbled, without even pretending to help look for a writing implement.

Willow fumbled in the bedside table, pulling out a bible and a handful of pamphlets as she went.

"Cas, would ya help a little?" Dean asked irritably when he noticed the angel stood staring.

"I don't understand what you're trying to do." Castiel answered. "Are you looking for something?"

"Yeah, a pen. You got one?"

The angel shook his head.

Dean went back to searching, grumbling the entire time until Ruby finally pulled a pen from her bag and lobbed it at him. Dean wrote as she listed off the details about the hex bags and called Bobby as soon as she had finished, relaying it to him so he could get to work on finding a way to bypass them.

"Alright, you're coming with us." Dean told Ruby, leaving no room for argument.

"I really don't see the point." Ruby said with a put upon sigh. "If I'm with you I won't have access to the demon grapevine, and that could come in real handy in the search for Wonder Boy and co."

Dean looked undecided for a moment, but Cas gave him a hard look that said exactly what he thought of letting the demon out of their sights. "Yeah, well, we'll just have to do without. Get your things, we're leaving in ten minutes, and anything that isn't packed isn't coming."

"And where exactly are we going?" Ruby asked scathingly. "We don't even know which direction he went in. Hell, we're not even sure he's the one that stole my car!"

"At least it's a place to start. Bobby called a friend, he's going to check cameras and stuff, see if he can find your car." Dean answered. "He should have something by the time we head out."

"Wait, how does Bobby have my license plate number? Or rather, how do you have my license plate number?" Ruby asked warily.

Dean shrugged. "I'm good at remembering. Plus Sam texts me the number each time you change it."

Ruby looked furious. "That little-"

"For just this kind of a reason." Dean pointed out, interrupting her and making her shut her mouth with a scowl.

"Ten minutes doesn't seem like a lot of time." Ruby pointed out.

"Believe me, it's gonna take less time for him to get that information than for you to pack your shit up." He asserted, casting a disdainful eye over the pile of clothes on the floor.

Ruby took the hint and started shoving things in her bag.

Dean got a text back from Bobby just as Ruby came out of the bathroom, hands full of the free toiletries and a towel that probably belonged to the motel. It had been more than ten minute but he wasn't going to say anything. It had still come before Ruby was ready. "No dice on Ruby's car, but we finally got Sam's. Gas station a couple hours away. Car's still there."

Ruby dumped her armful into her bag and picked it up. "Why would they dump it there?"

Dean frowned. "They?"

"Sam or whoever has him." Ruby replied evenly, flawlessly covering her blunder. "Why not dump it somewhere harder to find?"

"Who knows." Dean looked to Cas. "You head out and we'll see you there."

Castiel glanced at the phone screen and nodded, disappearing without a word.

Willow and Ruby followed Dean out to the car, each headed for the front seat. Neither wanted to end up sitting next to the other.

"Willow, you're in the front with me." Dean said, not even glancing around. Ruby shot Willow and Dean a glare, but climbed in the back without protest. "Been a while since the last finding spell, think you can do it while we're moving?"

Willow hesitated but gave a nod. She wouldn't usually risk it, but by now she could probably do it blindfolded. She tried to ignore Ruby's eyes on her as she worked.

"So how'd you get roped into all of this?" The demon asked, purposely interrupting just before Willow was supposed to chant.

Willow ignored her.

"Oh, come on! I'm sitting right here, the least you could do is answer me." Ruby waited for an answer that didn't come. "It's rude to ignore people, you know." She grumbled, sitting back with her arms folded.

"You're not a person." Willow muttered in response as she finished the spell; no luck once again.

"That's not nice." Ruby narrowed her eyes. "I would go so far as to say it's racist. Demons are people too. Just... Without the soul part." She pressed her hands dramatically to her chest, over her stolen body's heart. "We still feel."

Willow just tried another spell, an irritated frown forming.

Ruby smirked.


	12. Chapter 12

I'm sorry it's been awhile! I got caught up in GISHWHES and 1st birthdays and changing my course at Open University and going to the beach, then I was very tired. Actually, I'm still pretty tired.

Anyway, enjoy! (or don't, I'm not a dictator)

Disclaimer: Not my characters or universes, I just like to dress them up like little dolls and play with them. Though not the same games I used to play with dolls or this would be a lot sicker.

* * *

Sam looked over to the passenger seat where Dawn was bobbing around and singing along to some random pop song she'd found on the radio, the dried blood on the cuffs of her sleeves a surreal contrast to the exaggerated cheerful movements of her arms and hands. There was something decidedly off-putting about how quickly her terrified eyes and defensive posture had returned to that of a regular woman. "So, you seem to be feeling a lot better." He said casually.

Dawn shrugged, not breaking off her singing.

"You sure you're okay?" He fished for information.

She nodded and gave a small smile that betrayed her awareness of how odd she must seem. "Yeah. Tired, and my wrists hurt and I think I'm gonna need to pee soon, but hey. Just another day in the life of Dawn Summers; on the run from demons who want to kidnap her and use her blood to open the gates to hell. It's all getting a little old to be honest. I miss the good old days when monsters only wanted my blood because they skipped lunch while plotting to kill my sister."

Her statement became all the more awkward as the song finished on her last few words, leaving them in silence.

"So, were your parents in the hunting gig too?" Sam asked eventually.

"Nah, Mom was the closest either of them came, but even then it was more when things happened around her rather than looking for them. Usually vampires." Dawn answered easily, her fake cheerful tone doing nothing to hide the grief in her voice but getting the point across that it was not something she wanted to expand on. One big heart to heart moment was more than enough.

"My Dad was, right back from when I was a baby. In a way in made things easier, you know? Dean and I, we were born to this life pretty much, we didn't have to go from normal to exorcisms and beheadings. Well, Dean did a little, but I don't think he can remember much of before." Sam cleared his throat as no reply was forthcoming. "You wanna stop at the next place? I think there's a motel around here and no offence but you could really use a shower or something. Probably some sleep and access to a first aid kit, too."

Dawn rolled her eyes. "You don't smell too great yourself you know. That's what happens when you get high and have sex without taking a shower after. Kudos on the volume though, I barely heard you." She said it all without thinking, an automatic snarky response that just might alter the universe she was in forever.

Sam stiffened.

Dawn looked out of the window, taking deep breaths and trying to keep calm. Sam wouldn't hurt her unless he thought she was a threat. Or he was still too hopped up on demon blood to know what he was doing, but he seemed pretty lucid.

"I would, uh, appreciate it if you didn't mention my... Problem, to my brother." Sam said smoothly after a few moments, panic making his hands grip the wheel tighter. If she was dangerous like Ruby thought, then she wouldn't get the chance to tell Dean anything, but if she had just overheard the goings on in Ruby's room and not known anything about it before then, then he was going to have to convince her that silence was the best policy.

Dawn nodded, not looking at him.

After another hour or so of driving they reached the motel Sam had suggested and got a twin bed room. Dawn was a little self-conscious about sharing a room with a guy she didn't know outside of a TV show but at least it didn't look like he was going to be sleeping. If that could be counted as a good thing and not something that was worrying and a little creepy.

Dawn hopped into the bathroom, taking her clothes with her so that she could at least get them semi-clean and dry them over the heater. The blood stains were a loss with just water and hand soap, but the grime of wearing the same clothes for three or four days without even changing at night for the latter ones should mostly come out.

Sam waited for the sound of running water before fishing his phone out. He called Ruby first; much more risky if Dawn overheard anything.

"Sam?"

"Yeah. Listen, I found Dawn. She's just in the bathroom." He fidgeted. "I'm gonna hang out with her for a few days, try to figure out what she knows."

Ruby's sigh sounded tinny over the phone and lost some of its effect. "Just don't let your guard down, okay? And don't tell the god squad about her. Not telling what they'd do with her if she knows stuff."

The rest of the short conversation revolved around when he would next need Ruby's blood. It made him feel a little queasy but over excited at the same time, so he gave himself a few minutes to breathe before calling Dean. He got the busy tone. All for the best really as Dawn turned the water off not much longer after that and he had no idea what he was going to tell his brother anyway. Sorry, I ran off with the key 'cause my demon girlfriend kidnapped her and says she knows too much. I'll call back in a few days if I haven't killed her or she hasn't killed me. That would go down well.

He'd call later.

"Better?" Sam asked when Dawn exited the bathroom a few minutes later, wrapped in a large towel and looking a lot younger than she was from exhaustion.

She gave a small, tired smile and nodded, heading for one of the beds. She didn't lie down to sleep straight away though; too many half formed thoughts chasing each other around her head and making it impossible to relax. Instead she turned on the news, lying back and listening to the boring voice of the presenter as he reported a flood in some country her high school geology had failed to fix in her mind, a stabbing a few miles away, a couple of freak weather conditions worldwide that had scientists flustered. The droning, monotonous tone filled her head until it felt like concrete and she needed to slump further down into the bed to let it be supported by slightly lumpy pillows.

Sam didn't sleep. He carried on watching the news that Dawn had put on, switching channels to find another news show when it ended. So much going on, so many demonic and some angelic omens that only the wackiest of religious nut jobs could see for what they were. So much death that would only multiply a thousand, no, a million fold if Lucifer got out.

But he wasn't going to. Between them, Sam, Ruby and Dean would stop it. No matter what the cost. No matter if he had to drink demon blood every day for months, no matter if his relationship with his brother grew strained. Family wouldn't mean all that much if the devil got out. He repeated it to himself until the urge to call Dean again passed.

Later. Once he knew what he was going to say.


End file.
